


Crazy on You

by bellarkegriffin_blake



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bellamy Blake Loves Clarke Griffin, Clarke also loves bellamy, F/M, Fake Dating, I really don't like Echo, Minor Bellamy Blake/Echo, Minor Violence, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Bellamy Blake, echo is also obsessive, echo is possesive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:34:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23578498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellarkegriffin_blake/pseuds/bellarkegriffin_blake
Summary: Bellamy has had a crush on Clarke for years since she started college with his sister, but thinking he has no chance at her feeling the same way, he finds himself a girlfriend he knows will. Everything is wonderful at first, besides Clarke acting so funny around them, until he starts second guessing the relationship. She won't leave him alone and hates him being with his friends without her. He has to find a way to get her out of his life, but can he do it before someone he cares about gets hurt?
Relationships: Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin, Emori/John Murphy (The 100), Monty Green/Harper McIntyre, Octavia Blake/Lincoln, Raven Reyes/Miles Ezekiel Shaw
Comments: 59
Kudos: 160





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am excited to write this fic because I haven't had a decent story to write in a long time. I plan on about 12 chapters, but I never know what it will end up being. Thank you in advance for reading!

Bellamy is in Octavia, Raven, and Clarke’s full apartment. The whole gang, Jasper, Monty, Harper, Miller, Murphy, Emori, Octavia, Lincoln, Raven, Shaw, Clarke, and Bellamy, are all stuffed into the tiny place. This is usual for Friday nights, though. Every week, him and his friends gather at someone’s place to drink and hang out. It started in college when drinking was basically part of the curriculum, and when everyone graduated, they just kept doing it. 

Clarke walks up to Bellamy getting a beer from the fridge. “Grab one for me, too,” she says while scrolling through her phone.

“So bossy. Would a ‘please’ kill you?” he scoffs.

“It might. That’s why I’ve never said it to you.” Bellamy raises his eyes to the ceiling and blindly hands the beer to her, holding back his smile. Clarke winks and walks back to her seat in the living room between Murphy and Harper. 

Bellamy makes his way to the room, also. Octavia met Raven and Clarke a few years ago when she started at Sanctum University. At the time, Bellamy and Octavia still lived together, so the girls were always over. Bellamy thought they were incredibly annoying when they first started coming over, but now he can’t imagine not having met them. Any of them. Murphy and Miller are the only ones of the group that have been Bellamy’s friends from the start. 

As he sits in his sister’s recliner, a little removed from everyone else, he thinks about a special girl. He hasn’t been able to stop thinking about her for the past two weeks, and he thinks it’s about time to tell everyone about her. He wonders when the best time is for him to bring it up. But why is he so nervous about telling everyone?

Maybe because for the past two years he had been harboring a huge crush on Clarke. It’s not like he had told anyone about it, so there shouldn’t be any dissonance, but he can’t get himself to form the words. He looks over at her, ignoring every word coming out of Jasper’s mouth. Clarke throws her head back in laughter. Bellamy loves her laughs. It could be a small giggle or straight from her gut and her happiness instantly spreads to him. Her beautiful blue eyes capture his attention with every glance.

Before he falls too deep into the abyss that is Clarke, he blurts, “I have a girlfriend!” Bellamy cringes at his own voice. He has never been so nervous to announce he has a girlfriend. It’s not like it’s never happened before.

Everyone’s heads turn in his direction and all conversation stops. They raise their brows and look between him and Clarke. If he wasn’t so focused on telling them about her, he may have picked up on what everyone was thinking. 

“Her name is Echo,” Bellamy continues. “We met at the Dropship club and have been dating for the past two weeks. It’s been fantastic. She is smart, kind, attentive, and absolutely gorgeous.” He looks at the floor as he rambles, but when he looks up he sees everyone staring at him. “What?”

Murphy speaks first. “Nothing, man, congrats! When do we get to meet her?”

“If it’s okay with Echo, next week when we get together again. And if it’s okay with you guys, too?”

“Of course it’s okay with us, Bell,” Octavia tells him at the same time Jasper says, “No. Never. We don’t want to see her,” with a shit eating grin on his face.

Bellamy flips him off. 

“Sweet. Then next week we meet at my apartment.” He ends the conversation, and everyone goes back to previous conversation. Nothing to worry about. Bellamy finds he can’t stop smiling, that is until he watches Clarke slam down the rest of her beer and get up to get another one. He wouldn’t think anything of it except the looks Raven and Octavia give each other make it seem like something else is going on.

He keeps observing as his sister and Raven approach Clarke, who is halfway through her new beer. They talk to her and attempts to take the beer away, but no luck. Clarke looks his way, and he sees the blush rising in her cheeks. She sighs, averts her eyes, and chugs the second half of her beer, immediately opening the fridge for another.

Echo is the first person since he met Clarke that he has felt this way for. Bellamy isn’t sure why he makes Clarke so mad every time they talk, but he is sure she wouldn’t reciprocate whatever feelings he has for her. No, _had_ for her. He can’t live like this forever.

Bellamy rises from the recliner and walks into the kitchen where Raven and O still stand. They are talking quietly until he gets closer. Then they stop altogether.

“I’m happy for you, big brother,” Octavia says and gives him a hug. “You seem really happy.”

“I’ve never seen you so nervous,” Raven comments.

Bellamy shrugs a shoulder. “I don’t know why I was either. Is everything alright with Clarke? She’s acting a little funny.”

The girls look at each other and then back at him, once again giving him the feeling that he is missing something. Octavia says, “She’s fine.”

All three of them find Clarke by the stereo drinking her beer and dancing alone to the loud music. 

“Well, she will be,” Raven sighs. 

“Seriously, what the hell? Is everything okay?”

Octavia massages the bridge of her nose, clearly annoyed with his questions. “Actually no. While you were talking earlier, she found out the biggest crush of her life started dating another girl.” Raven’s eyes bore into the side of Octavia’s skull, but Octavia doesn’t seem to care.

“Oh,” Bellamy concedes. No wonder she has been so down. “I feel so guilty about breaking the news now. I’m going to go apologize.”

He starts to walk towards the living room, but Octavia and Raven takes each one of his arms and pulls him back. “No!” They whisper-shout simultaneously. 

“What’s the matter, guys?” Bellamy has no idea what’s happening anymore. 

“Listen, just let her be. She is drinking, and she won’t listen to what anyone has to say,” Octavia says. She also adds, “Oh, and I wouldn’t bring it up again after this either. No reason to make her go through this again.”

Bellamy shrugs his arms out of their grasp. “Fine, but I hope you guys know you are acting very odd.”

“We know,” Raven confirms. “Drink. Have fun. Talk about whats-her-name.”

“Echo.”

“Yeah, her,” she waves him off. 

Bellamy opens his mouth to say more, but decides against it and joins Monty, Jasper, and Lincoln at the pong table. He doesn’t see the way Raven and Octavia sigh in relief and laugh over his utter stupidity.

Midnight rolls around, after hours of music, beer, and games, and people are calling it quits. Each car has their own DD, so there is no worry there, thank God. It’s never happened, but Bellamy doesn’t even want to think about getting a call from the hospital saying one of his friends flew through a windshield.

When everyone is gone from his sister’s apartment except him, he walks over to Clarke. She is wiping up a spill that would be a much bigger bitch to clean in the morning if she waited till then. If he can’t apologize, he can try to be useful. “Need any help?”

“From you? No.” Her tone is harsh, but he doesn’t know why it’s directed towards him. It’s not like _he_ is the reason her huge crush got a girlfriend. 

“Um, okay then. I will go…over in the kitchen then.”

“I don’t think you get it. You don’t need to help. Octavia, Raven, and I have got this. We always do.”

“Ok. I will leave. Sorry to bother you.” Bellamy grabs his keys off the island in the kitchen, takes a last look at the blonde, and leaves. He may have been mistaken, but he thinks he saw her collapse a little in regret. Deciding not to push his luck, he exits the building and drives home.

With all this Clarke business, he forgot to let Echo know that next week is a go. As soon as he gets into his apartment, he lays down on the couch and texts her. She responds in seconds that she is excited to meet his friends can’t wait to see him again. Finally, something is going right in his love life.

Bellamy heads to bed and plops in. Not five minutes later another text comes in. He smiles thinking it’s Echo and looks at his phone. Seeing Clarke’s name on his screen his brows knit together in confusion. They way she was acting towards him earlier, he didn’t think he would hear from her in a while. Not until she cooled down, anyways. 

She only sent one thing, a thumbs up emoji. Bellamy hopes he isn’t misconstruing anything or whatever she means to say. Assuming she means they are good again (the reason they weren’t still unclear to him), he returns the same message. Hopefully the next time they meet he won’t mess it up again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red flags rise with Echo, but Bellamy ignores them, of course.

Bellamy wakes up to a violent vibration in his ears. First, in his half-asleep state, he thinks it’s the beginning of a hangover from last night, but he remembers he really didn’t have that much to drink. He falls back asleep when his head hits the pillow again. Not long after, the same vibration snaps him out of his sleep once more. He rubs his eyes to wake himself up all the way and figures out the vibration is coming from his phone. He is about to answer, but he is too late.

Laying on his stomach, he picks the phone up from the headboard to find Echo’s name taking up his entire screen. Ten messages and three missed phone calls all within the hour. Bellamy starts to worry, and he throws himself into a sitting position. His fingers fly over his screen, calling Echo back as fast as he can while his heart beats nearly out of his chest. What could have happened between last night and this morning? Did someone break into her place? Did something happen to her?

Nothing calms him down until he hears her voice at the other end of the line. “Hey there, babe,” she greets. 

“Hey there, babe?” She sounds perfectly fine. “What the hell? I wake up to messages telling me to pick up the phone and missed calls, and that’s all you have to say?”

“I didn’t mean to worry you, I just wanted to ask you a question. Besides, I thought you would be up.”

Bellamy glances at the alarm clock next to his bed. “Echo, it’s 7:30 in the morning…on a Saturday. Why would I be up?” As if his mind wants to prove a point, he involuntarily yawns into the phone.

“Maybe you shouldn’t stay up all night with those friends of yours. You could have been here with me instead.” The way she says “those friends” rubs him the wrong way, but he attributes it to her not knowing them yet.

“We do that every Friday, you know that. And next week they will be your friends, too.”

Echo is silent for a moment, but she speaks again saying, “Right. Anyways, what I wanted to ask you was if you wanted to go to lunch with me today.”

Bellamy lays back on his bed, sleep wanting to take him under again, and replies, “Of course I do. But maybe next time try not to call and text me so much and so early unless it’s an emergency?”

“I’m sorry. Yes, I will let you sleep on Saturday mornings. See you at your favorite diner at noon?”

“I will be there.” Bellamy hangs up the phone and closes his eyes. A perfect lunch at the perfect place with the perfect girl. He can’t wait. 

He opens his eyes again to have some breakfast, tidy up the living room, and maybe read a little bit before his date. He picks up his phone to check the time and IT IS 11:30.

He hops out of bed, puts on some clean clothes, and runs into the living room. Bellamy isn’t a messy guy, but ever since he started dating Echo, he has kept his apartment the cleanest it’s ever been. He only has ten minutes to straighten the place up before he has to leave. He puts the sweatshirt hanging on the back of the couch in his room, recycles a couple empty water bottles, and piles stray books onto his shelf. 

Bellamy heads to the door but pauses with his hand on the knob. Looking into his apartment, it dawns on him that he has never bothered to clean up like this for anyone else. He doesn’t have time to ruminate on reasons, so he leaves to meet Echo.

At 11:59, he arrives at Day Trip Diner, his favorite place since Clarke introduced it to him and his sister when Octavia started school with her. He remembers the first time the three of them went there. Clarke was so excited to show them the diner because the food was amazing, and they just had to try it. Bellamy agreed that their meal was delicious, but it was the dessert that really took him over the edge. He has never found another chocolate cake that has tasted better than this diner’s slice of heaven.

He snaps out of his reverie as Echo pulls up in her car beside him. He gets out as she does and after he locks the doors, she runs into his arms and kisses him directly on the lips.

He melts into her for a few seconds, but then pulls away.

“Well, hello to you, too,” he says as he smiles down at her. “Shall we go in?”

“We shall.” Echo takes his hand and they walk into the diner. Bellamy sees an open two-person table across to room and leads the way. Halfway there, he bumps into another person’s shoulder trying to leave. He turns to apologize but stops when he sees who it is.

“Hey, Clarke,” he says. He didn’t think this would happen, and he certainly didn’t want to introduce Echo to her like this. It’s not the worst way possible, but he would have rather had the time to prepare himself to present his current girlfriend to the girl he crushed on for so long. 

She stares at him for second, a tiny blush raising in her cheeks, but collects herself and says, “Hey. What are you doing here?” She looks between him, Echo, and their linked hands. Bellamy pulls his hand from Echo’s and looks at her. He is confused to briefly see her eyebrows drawn together and her lips pinched tight. As soon as he sees it, though, the look is gone. 

“Echo, this is Clarke. She is one of the people I hang out with on Fridays.”

“I guessed as much,” she says while looking Clarke up and down. Clarke reaches her hand out and Echo shakes it firmly once, then lets go. She looks like she wants to say more to Bellamy, but something stops her. The girl Clarke is with lets her know that she will wait in the car and walks out the door. 

Bellamy waits for Echo to extend the same courtesy, but she doesn’t. He becomes slightly irritated, but he says to Clarke, “Have any chocolate cake?” 

“Duh. You can’t come here and not have a slice,” Clarke laughs. She is about to say more until she looks over his shoulder where Echo is standing and her face falls. “Well, I should go. I shouldn’t keep Niylah waiting. We have other things to do today.”

Bellamy nods and says, “Of course, have fun! See you on Friday?”

“Yes, I’ll see you then. Goodbye.” Clarke walks away, leaving Bellamy and Echo in the aisle. He takes her to the table he spotted earlier and sits down. 

“What’s wrong, babe?” Echo asks with a concerned look on her face. 

Bellamy thinks about how to word it, “Why did act so… strange towards Clarke?” The waitress, Gina, comes and hands them menus and asks for drinks before walking away again.   
“It was just unexpected. I planned on meeting all your friends next week, so I was thrown off by her being here. I’m sorry, I know I was probably a little rude. I will be better on Friday.”

He accepts her apology and they order their food when Gina comes back with their drinks. They talk during their meal like nothing weird even happened between her and Clarke. It is as perfect as all of their dates have been in the past two weeks. 

They planned on talking a walk around the town after lunch, but it started to rain ten minutes ago.

“Want to go to your place and watch movies?” he asks her as he signs the receipt. As well as they have been going, he still hasn’t seen where she lives. They always go to his apartment or they go out. It doesn’t bother him much yet, but it does strike him as odd. 

It doesn’t surprise him when she says, “I think yours would be best. It’s closer and you have a comfier couch.” Bellamy decides not to argue, taking her hand when the get up from their table. He walks her to her car, pecks her cheek and runs around to his own in the rain. 

Echo arrives at his building as the same time he does. They walk up to his apartment and he unlocks the door. 

“What do you wanna watch first, Bellamy?”

“I picked last time. Why don’t you pick?”

“That’s okay, I want you to choose.”

Bellamy plops on his couch, rests his feet on the table in front of him, and says, “How about Pearl Harbor?” It’s historical fiction, which Bellamy enjoys, but it is also sad, which means he will probably get to comfort Echo. That’s what he is really looking forward to. 

Twenty minutes into the movie, Echo whispers, “Do you want anything to drink?” 

“I’m okay but thank you. If you want anything, I can get it for you.”

“No, thank you. If you don’t want anything, neither do I.”

Then they go back to silently watching the movie. Bellamy reaches his arm over her shoulder like a teenager in the movie theatre on his first date, but much less nervously. She tucks her head against his shoulder and rests her hand on his stomach. She lazily draws circles and Bellamy finds it hard to focus on the movie. 

When the attack starts and all the chaos is happening, Echo asks again, “Do you need anything? I can get you a water? Or maybe a beer?”

“I’m fine, just like last time you asked. But please, if you want something, you are welcome to anything.”

By the end of the movie, which also didn’t make Echo cry and in need of comfort, Echo asked him three more times what, or if, he wanted anything. He would normally think she is being sweet and attentive, but this was a little much. He ignores it, though, not wanting to upset her. 

“Ready for another?” he asks her.

“Actually, why don’t we play a game? Chess?” Echo heads to his shelf of scarce games and pulls off his old chess set. Clarke got him that for Christmas one year because she said he “was always a step ahead of her” when it came to, well, almost anything. It annoyed her so much she decided to make fun of him for it. Classic Clarke. 

He pulls his mind from the memory and sets up the game at the kitchen table. “I didn’t know you knew how to play,” he says. 

“I learned a long time ago, so I know the basics. I can’t promise I will be much of a challenge.”

“I’m sure you will do fine. Go ahead, make the first move.”

And she did do fine, if she considers losing every match they played. Chess, when played correctly shouldn’t take less than at least forty-five minutes. Every game they played only lasted fifteen to twenty minutes. 

“We can play a different game if you want,” he had suggested after she lost the third game in a row.

“No, I think I’m getting the hang of it.” That was her answer after every game, every loss. They ended up playing for hours, until the next thing they knew it was ten o’clock at night. That’s not usually a late night for either of them, but Echo had mentioned she picked up a morning shift at work, so she decided she should leave earlier than normal.   
Bellamy walks her to the door and gives her a goodbye kiss. He smiles and starts to close the door, but she leans in for another kiss. And another, and another, and another. He can’t lie and say he doesn’t enjoy making out with his girlfriend, but halfway out his door is not the place he prefers it to happen. She finally gives him the last taste of her lips and walks down the hallway. 

He is about to close his door when he catches Octavia heading towards him. He stands there with the door open and lets her walk straight inside. 

“Hey, Bell. I brought the sweatshirt you left at my apartment last night.”

“Thanks, but why at ten at night? I see you every week and I have plenty of sweatshirts.” 

Octavia hops up on his kitchen counter and says, “Can’t I return your stuff without the third degree?” Bellamy crosses his arms and leans his hip against the counter beside her, raising one eyebrow. “Fine. Clarke told me you guys ran into each other today.”

“Okay… so that warranted a late-night visit? Don’t get me wrong, O, you are always welcome, but why was this so important?”

“Clarke said that Echo acted a little off when she met her. Like she couldn’t let you two have a moment to talk, even when she wouldn’t have any idea what you were talking about anyways. And the way she looked at Clarke when you guys started talking about the cake. She said, and I quote, ‘her eyes touched my soul and commanded me to stop talking.’”

“I think that’s a little bit of an exaggeration,” he says, even thought he distinctly remembers the way Clarke’s face fell when she looked over his shoulder. “Echo is just new, but you will all meet her on Friday.”

“I’m so glad that you are happy, big brother. But please, all I ask is for you to be careful.” Octavia rests her hand on his shoulder and looks straight into his eyes. This is how he knows she is serious. It’s the same look she gave him when she started dating Lincoln, a guy he thought wasn’t good enough for her, telling him Lincoln is nothing but good to her, and also when she said he needs to let her move to a different apartment than him so they can both live their own lives. Both times she was correct, so, while he doesn’t think he will need to heed the warning, he places it in the back corner of his mind. 

“I will keep it in mind, but I don’t think I will need it. You’ll see Friday. She is wonderful, loving, attentive, and so beautiful. Everyone will love her. She will be part of the group in no time.”

Octavia slides off his counter and they head back to his door. “I hope so. You deserve to be happy, Bellamy.” As she gives him a soft goodbye hug, she mutters something under her breath. He thinks he hears “you”, “Clarke”, and “together”, but her words are muffled by his chest. Before he gets the chance to ask, she opens the door and walks out. 

Bellamy goes to bed and thinks about the next week. He can’t wait for everyone to meet Echo. They are going to see that whatever warning they think he needs isn’t necessary. After a wonderful day with his amazing girlfriend, he falls asleep and the girl of his dreams pops into his head. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Echo is acting so weird and Bellamy doesn't want to see it. Is he this desperate to try and get over his crush on Clarke?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bellamy finally starts seeing what's beneath Echo's surface, with the help of his friends, of course.

Bellamy walks into his apartment after work and collapses on the couch. When no one will discuss the material in a _discussion based_ class, pulling the answers from everyone’s teeth gets pretty exhausting. He had to do that not once, but twice today, due to none of his students coming to class prepared. He is about to take a nap, so he isn’t a complete buzzkill tonight, when his door opens. He shoots to his feet, heart pounding, because he is 100% he locked the door behind him as he does every day. 

He relaxes when he watches Echo stride through the door with bags hanging on her arms. She walks into the small kitchen and places them on the counter. His smile soon falls into a look of confusion. 

“You know I’m glad to see you, but how exactly did you get in? I locked my door when I got home from work,” he says and meets her in the kitchen. He leans back against the counter right beside her.

“With this,” and she holds up a newly cut key. At the sight of his dumbfounded look, she continues, “I grabbed the spare for a day and got my own. I figured it would come in handy.”

“You…but…I…who said you could do that?” Bellamy massages the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “You can’t just do that.”

Echo, picking up on Bellamy’s attitude, doesn’t say anything, just starts kissing him. Long and slow she continues until he forgets why he was even upset. He pulls away and smiles at his girlfriend. 

“So, what’s in the bags?” he asks her. 

“I decided to get an assortment of different alcohols, some decorations, and a few bags of candy to distribute to our friends.” Echo looks around the kitchen and into the living room. “Oh, and we are going to need to clean this place. I’m talking sweep, dust, vacuum, all of it.”

Bellamy is nearly speechless. Nearly. “Echo, we don’t have to do any of that. This place isn’t dirty, it’s barely even messy! None of my friends expect a perfectly clean place to hang out it. Hell, if they did, we wouldn’t ever go to Murphy’s. And the ‘assortment of alcohol’? We like one beer, which makes it easy. And please, I beg you, no decorations.”

Echo crosses her arms and gives him a look that drills into his very soul. He concedes, looks down, and says, “I’ll get the broom.” 

She kisses his cheek and packs the beer into the fridge before grabbing a Swiffer from one of her bags. It was 2:30 when they started cleaning, and five hours later, he finally gets to put those damned cleaning products away. 

Bellamy looks around his apartment. He admits, it’s nice to know every inch is spotless, but it wasn’t at all necessary. What else isn’t necessary are the stupid decorations Echo bought and placed everywhere. Wooden signs with random quotes, pictures of the two of them, and throws with matching pillows, for God’s sake! He looks to the ceiling. He is never going to hear the end of this. 

Not ten minutes after everything is put away, Murphy and Emori walk in his now unlocked door. Bellamy is back on the couch, flipping through Netflix movies to have on in the background. Echo, on the other hand, is right in their faces with a bowl of candy.

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you! My name is Echo.”

Murphy and Emori glance at each other and then to Bellamy, who shrugs his shoulders at them, before taking some candy. “Nice to meet you, too, Echo. My name is Emori, and this is John. Everyone else just calls him Murphy, though.”

“Murphy. Emori. Got it.” She smiles and guides them to the couch beside Bellamy. “Want anything to drink?

“Umm, just a beer is good,” Murphy says as he takes in all the new things around him and stifles his laughter.

“We have Palm Breeze, White Claw, Bud Light Seltzer, or Busch Light.”

Murphy looks to Bellamy beside him and mouths “Seriously?” while Emori says, “Two busch lights please.”

They sit in silence while she pulls three beers from the fridge and hands each of them on the couch one. Instead of sitting in the open chair in the living room, Echo sits right on the arm directly beside Bellamy, her arm snaking around his shoulders. 

Not long after Murphy and Emori arrive, which they silently thank God for, more people walk into the apartment. First is Lincoln and Shaw, both of their girlfriends missing, then Monty, Harper, and Jasper. Echo follows the same procedure she did when the first two got here.

When she is gone and by the door, Murphy whispers to Bellamy with a serious tone, “I really love the matching pillows to go with the new blankets.”

“They are called throws,” Bellamy grumbles back. 

Unable to contain it anymore, Murphy busts out laughing. “Oh, I’m sorry. I love the matching pillows to go with the new _throws._ ” 

Bellamy lets out a laugh of his own, and once he starts, he finds it hard to stop. Why did he let her put these things out? It can only go up from here.

Finally, the last people arrive. He watches Octavia, Raven, and Clarke come in the door. Clarke’s cheeks show hints of an alcohol blush, which he finds weird since she has never showed up already drunk before. When Echo strides up to the trio with her bowl of candy, Bellamy can’t decide if the darker shade of pink in her cheeks is because of the alcohol or because Echo is two feet from her. 

He decides to talk to go talk to them as soon as Echo walks away. When he gets to their group, Octavia and Raven try not to laugh while Clarke slowly warms up to the situation and smirks at him, too. 

“I absolutely love what you’ve done to the place, Bellamy,” Clarke tells him. 

“Yeah, yeah, I know. She went a little overboard.”

“A little?” his sister asks. 

Raven starts making fun of the stupid wood signs randomly placed around the house, but he isn’t listening to her. He is watching Clarke, instead. Her bright blue eyes taking everything in, her walls coming down so she can immerse herself in the fun they all have together. He never gets tired of how she looks when she is truly enjoying herself. The best part is, she never looks away from him, either. 

“Don’t you think so, Bellamy?” he hears Raven ask him. 

“Um, yeah, definitely,” he responds, not sure at all what she was talking about. Out of the corner of his eye, he thinks he sees his sister and Raven rolling their eyes at him, but nothing disrupts his thoughts like Clarke’s wall slamming back up around her. Seconds later, he feels a hand sliding down is arm and eventually taking his own in it. 

“Having fun?” Echo asks the group.

Octavia and Raven utter things under their breath while walking to meet Harper in the living room, and Clarke just shrugs her shoulder and heads to the fridge for a beer. 

Being the only person left, Bellamy says, “Yes, it’s been fun so far.” 

Satisfied, Echo makes more rounds to everyone, leaving Bellamy standing there alone. She asks what they want, if they are having fun, if they like the decorations, and pretty much any random thing that comes to her mind. He did not imagine it like this. They were all supposed to get to know Echo while hanging out like they always do on Fridays. This is just insane. 

Not feeling like standing alone in his own apartment anymore, Bellamy joins the guys around the beer pong table. 

“Who’s winning?” he nudges Lincoln’s arm. 

“Look who is playing. Do you really need to ask?” Bellamy should have known better. Murphy is playing Shaw, which means Shaw is getting torn apart. He barely makes any of his shots while Murphy makes nearly every one. This game will be over in no time. 

“So,” Lincoln starts, “You’re really into this chick, huh?”

Bellamy chuckles. “Listen, I don’t know what is going on today. She isn’t usually like this. She—” He doesn’t get to finish his sentence before Echo walks up and places herself between him and Lincoln. 

“Wow, this looks like an interesting game,” she says loud enough for all the guys to hear. It makes Murphy jump out of his skin and consequently misses his winning shot. Bellamy laughs as Murphy produces a low growl in his throat.

“Murphy is pretty much the reigning champ at this game,” Bellamy explains to Echo. “It would be a miracle if Shaw can make these his next four shots compared to Murphy’s one.”

Echo smirks and starts tapping her nails on the edge of the table. Shaw only makes one of his shots, so Murphy is up for the win. Right before he lets go though, Echo shouts to someone in the kitchen to come watch the game. Once again, Murphy is surprised enough to miss, giving Shaw another chance to come back. 

Shaw makes two out of the three he had left, so now he is even with his competitor. Murphy is about to line up what should be his last shot, but stops and turns to Echo, “For once, will you stop anything that is about to come out of your mouth so I can win my game?”

Echo nods and watches him raise his arm to throw the ball. As soon as his arm moves forward, Echo smacks her hand on the table. He misses and glares straight at her. The girls in the kitchen gather around to see what all the commotion is about. Everyone in the apartment is watching. 

“Sorry, I thought I saw a bug. I said I wouldn’t say anything to make you lose, and I didn’t.”

Murphy looks like he wants to say something back, but Emori steps in front of him and slightly calms him down. Bellamy notices everyone’s eyes on Shaw and his upcoming throw. He sinks it into the cup and Murphy chugs it down. 

Right after the alcohol is gone, and the cheers and high fives die down, Murphy grabs Emori’s hand and walks out the door. Bellamy knows he doesn’t like to lose, but this seems a bit much. Emori would have made him stay if it was just because he lost, called him a sore loser, and then let everyone make fun of him for it. She is voluntarily leaving with him, so there is something deeper going on. 

Bellamy chases them and meets them in the hallway. “Are you really leaving because you lost a game of beer pong?”

“Come on, dude, you know me better than that,” Murphy grumbles. “I may have deserved to win that game, but I don’t care if I lost. We are leaving because your girlfriend is crazy.”

“John…” Emori warns. 

“She isn’t crazy, she just wants you guys to get to know her. She wants to be liked,” Bellamy says, defending Echo. 

“You can’t be so blind to not see what is happening right in front of you. She calls and texts you whenever you are alone. Hell, whenever you are with one of us. She completely changed you and your apartment to what she wanted. She won’t let you talk to one of us even in the same room for more than two minutes without butting in. Not to mention the moment you get within five feet of Clarke, she is right there to separate you! I just don’t get how you don’t see it.”

“Clarke has nothing to do with this. She has no reason to be jealous because there is nothing between us. There never has been.”

“Are you sure about that?” Murphy asks. Bellamy doesn’t know what to say, so he watches the two of his friends walk down the hallway and out of sight. 

He enters his apartment again and finds Raven, Shaw, Clarke, Monty, Harper, and Jasper all watching a new movie on the tv. They look bored out of their minds. He notices Octavia not in the movie group, so he looks behind the couch where the pong table and sees her and Lincoln there playing with Echo. Finally, someone is interacting with her. He loves his sister. 

Bellamy stands beside Echo as Octavia takes her turn and wraps his arm around her waist. He kisses her cheek and asks, “How’s it going?”

“I think I’ve made some good friends, babe,” she says. She shoos Bellamy off her hip so she can make a decent shot, but when he shifts, he watches Clarke get up from the couch and drunkenly make her way to the fridge. He leaves Echo’s side and stands in front of the fridge door before she can open it. 

“I hope you aren’t the one who was supposed to drive tonight,” he playfully tells her. 

“Well lucky for you, I’m not. Raven drew the shorts stick tonight,” she slurs. Clarke tries to push him out of the way, but he doesn’t budge. Figuring out she can’t move him, she stands nose to nose with him and says, “Move.”

“Don’t you think you’ve had enough for tonight? We all like to drink, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen you have this much.”

“I know you see me as your little sister because I’ve been friends with Octavia for years, but I’m not. You don’t have to worry about me. I can take care of myself.”

“I…what? Clarke—” 

He is interrupted by Echo shouting at him from the game to come watch her win. He shakes his head and looks back at Clarke who is still trying to get him to move. 

“I have never thought of you as a little sister, Clarke. If anything, I have…” Bellamy chokes down his near confession. “Never mind,” he was so close to admitting his feelings he has for her. No, had. He has to remind himself of that every time. He backs up a few inches so their faces are now only six away from each other and swipes his sweaty palms on his pant legs before continuing. “Please, stop drinking for tonight.”

He glances down at her lips for a split second before she replies, “Fine.” They both turn towards the living room and run into Echo standing in front of them. She doesn’t say anything, just stares at Bellamy. Clarke, realizing she isn’t wanted to stick around, stumbles into the living room and back to Raven’s side. 

“Why didn’t you come watch me play?” Echo asks with a sad face. 

“Why do you need me there watching every shot? I was talking to Clarke.”

“I saw that. But why? I wanted you over there with me.”

Bellamy looks at her with disbelief. “Clarke has been drinking heavily all night. I asked her to stop.” He is going to keep arguing, but he sees everyone leaving at once. He asks them why, but all he gets are “see you around”s and unenthusiastic “had fun tonight”s. Octavia is the last one out the door, but before she leaves, she gives an apologetic look to her brother. 

“I don’t understand,” his girlfriend says, pretending everyone didn’t just leave as soon as she wasn’t paying attention. “All of your friends drink a lot on Friday nights. I thought that’s what you do. Why is she so different?” Her tone is curious, but her eyes are accusatory. 

“If any of my friends drank like Clarke did tonight, I’d be concerned. But nobody did, did you notice that? I don’t know why she had so much, but she did.”

Echo closes her eyes and calms herself down. When she opens her eyes, she smiles at Bellamy and suggests, “Why don’t we start cleaning up and watch a movie.”

Rubbing his hand down his face, and not wanting to hear that “c” word again so soon, he tells her, “I think it’s best you go for tonight.”

“It’s only 9:00. By the way you made your friends sound, they would still be here partying. When it’s just us, we are up way later. I guess I’m just more fun to be around.”  
He can’t believe what he was hearing. No, they aren’t here because she smothered them all and pushed them away! But he can’t tell her that because it would just cause problems that he has no desire go through right now. 

“Echo, I think it’s best you go.”

“But I should help you clean up. I can stay.”

Bellamy walks over to the door and opens it for her. “I can clean up myself. I will talk to you soon.”

She makes a face that slightly looks angry for a small moment, but it then gives way to sadness. Bellamy feels bad for pushing her out the door like this, but for the first time since they started dating, he didn’t want to spend another minute with her. 

He closes the door, locks it, and walks into his bedroom. There is no way he is cleaning tonight, so he plops onto his bed. He thinks about what Murphy said as he left. Has he really been so blind? He thinks about Echo’s behavior ever since the diner when they unexpectedly saw Clarke. She hasn’t been the same since. What is he going to do about this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Echo is insane, right? At least Murphy had the guts to tell him to his face and get him to see that Echo has problems.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Echo pushes Bellamy past his breaking point and his friends help him devise a plan to get rid of her.

Bellamy hasn’t heard from Echo since she ruined Friday night, and he can’t believe how at peace he feels. The weekend had no pressure to be anywhere or do anything important. He feels like he should have called or at least texted, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. All he could think about was what Murphy said. Was he really that blind? Echo may have gone a little overboard, but that doesn’t have to mean anything bad, right? It’s the start of the relationship; it’s supposed to be rocky. 

It’s Monday, and Bellamy is on his way to work. As soon as he starts driving his phone starts blowing up. Because of course it does. Being a good driver, he doesn’t look at it for the twenty minute drive it takes to get to his office on campus. When he finally parks in his spot outside the history building, he looks at his phone. Twelve messages from his girlfriend, but one is actually from Murphy telling him the guys are going out tonight and is demanding him to be there for once.

Her messages start with a pleasant “good morning” then to “why aren’t you replying?” which leads to “are you mad at me” and on she goes. He decides to just call her, and she picks up on the first ring.

“Echo, you know I have work at this time on Mondays. Why all the messages?”

“I just wanted to make sure we were ok. Friday was a mess, and I want to make it up to you tonight. Up for some fun, babe?”

Bellamy drags a hand down his face. He wants to get past this, but his gut is telling him there is something deeper in Echo that he doesn’t like; that he should stay away. “I’d love to, but I have plans with the guys tonight. Rain check?”

Silence. 

“Echo? You there?”

“You just hung out with _the guys_ two nights ago,” she spits. 

“Yeah, I just hung out with you two nights ago, too. What’s so different?”

She scoffs into the phone. “Excuse me?”

“Look, I’m sorry, but I don’t see the problem. I will talk to you soon.” He doesn’t want to give a time frame so she can expect anything. “My office hours are about to start, and I need to actually be in my office for those to take place.”

“Fine.” With no other words, she hangs up on him. 

Bellamy makes his way to his office and ends up being a couple minutes late. When he arrives at his door, there is already a student waiting. 

“Sorry I’m late, let’s head inside and you can ask me your questions. What’s your name?” he asks his student. 

“My name’s Charlotte.”

“After you, Charlotte.” He leaves the door open for the girl and walks in after her. He scoots out the chair for her so she can get what she needs, and he settles himself behind his desk. 

Charlotte is only there for ten minutes, but a lot of information is dealt out. His class is learning about the genealogy of the Greek gods right now, and he can understand why she needed help. 

“How do you keep all this straight?” she had asked him. 

“Well, I’ve had a lot of practice. I want you to study and know the material, but if you truly get stuck on the exam, assume Zeus is the father and answer the question accordingly.” That got a laugh out of the girl and she left soon after. There hasn’t been another student since. He isn’t surprised, though. Students rarely come into his Monday office hours. 

He is reading through his plans for next week when a knock comes from the other side of his door. Without looking up, he calls out, “It’s open!”

Clacking of heels fill the room as he finishes up his last sentence. When he is done, he starts to stand up to greet his student, but freezes halfway up. He watches Echo saunter in the room wearing a dress that is, while very attractive and arousing, not at all appropriate for the situation. He plops back down into his chair.

“Hey, babe,” she seductively greets. All he can do right now is stare, not because of how she looks, but because he can’t believe she is doing this in his place of work. “See something you like?”

Finally, he is able to croak out, “What the hell are you doing, Echo?”

“I couldn’t wait to see you. I was planning to make up for Friday later, but I figured you’d be bored in your office hours. You’ve complained about it before. Anyways, I thought I’d surprise you.” She walks over to his desk and sits on it, positioning him between her knees. 

“You shouldn’t be here dressed like that here. This is where I work.” 

Echo starts slowly trailing her foot up his leg and thankfully stops on his thigh. He watches every move until she guides his face to look at her. Then she swiftly straddles his lap in his big office chair. Her breasts push up against his own chest before she presses her soft lips to his. Every fiber in his being is telling him to stop, but he can’t. He kisses his girlfriend back slowly while his hands rest on her thighs. They don’t stay there for long, though. As she starts kissing him with more intensity, he feels the hem of her dress under his fingertips and flicks them underneath it instead. 

“Echo…” he groans between kisses. How can she make him forget everything so easily?

“If you weren’t at work or with everyone else so often, we could do this every day. Doesn’t that sound like fun?” 

He starts to pull back at the statement, so Echo presses herself down on him and kisses him deeper. He is about to say something about how he is almost never with his friends anymore when he hears giggling coming from his doorway. 

As soon as the girls see that Bellamy is looking at them, they scatter with red cheeks. Bellamy pushes Echo off his lap and slams his door shut. Bellamy’s back is turned when Echo smirks at the interruption.

“You left this open? Why in God’s name would you do that??” he yells at her. 

“I’m so sorry… I didn’t realize it was open,” she mumbles. She quickly covers herself back up with the coat he wore to work today. He doesn’t even argue about it in hopes it would get her out of his office. 

“Just take it and go, please. I am going out with my friends tonight and I will let you know when I want to talk to you again. Don’t come over, don’t even text me. What happened to the girl I fell for in the beginning?”

“Don’t be like that, baby. I’m the same person I have been this whole time.”

Bellamy scoffs. “No, you aren’t. Give me a few days and leave me alone.”

“Are you breaking up with me?” Echo swipes at her cheeks, but they look suspiciously dry. 

“No. Not yet, anyways. Give me some damn room for a while!”

For once, Echo looks genuinely taken aback. He watches her make her way to the door where he is still standing. Before she walks out looking all sad, he takes her hand. 

“I’m sorry for that, I just need space. I’m not breaking up with you, Echo, but you aren’t making it very easy to want to stay.”

She smiles like she didn’t even hear the last part. “Glad to hear you say you aren’t breaking up with me. I think you would regret not having my wonderful personality in your life.”

Before he can question what the hell she meant by that, she pecks his cheek and scurries out of the room. Just in time for his office hours to be over. 

Five hours later, Bellamy walks into the guys’ favorite bar, The Ark, and joins Monty, Jasper, Murphy, and Miller at their table. Lincoln and Shaw have to work all night, so they aren’t here.

“Well what do ya know! Bellamy escaped the grip of the she-devil herself! Nice to see you, buddy!” Muprhy exclaims. He is clearly already a few drinks in. Bellamy smacks him on the arm.

Miller speaks next, “Gotta say, I wasn’t expecting to see you here tonight.”

“You wouldn’t believe what happened to me today,” Bellamy says after downing his first beer.

“Does it have to do with your girlfriend? Is she still your girlfriend?” Jasper asks. 

Bellamy rolls his eyes at the grief he is getting, but he knows they have a right to it. Echo has been a nightmare lately and something needs to happen. “Yes, as of right now she still is. But I need help, guys. How do I get through to her to calm down? She wasn’t like this before she met everyone.”

“You mean before she met Clarke,” Monty points out. 

“Why would you say that?” Bellamy half-heartedly asks. 

“Look, Clarke didn’t just tell Raven and Octavia what happened at the diner that day. Harper was there, and when she came home, she told me about it. Harper hasn’t felt good about Echo since. And besides—”

“Besides, dude,” Murphy interrupts. “it doesn’t take much reading between the lines when you and Clarke are around each other to know how you feel about her.” 

Bellamy nearly spits out his drink. He looks to the others for some help, but they all nod or shrug in agreement with Murphy. “I don’t…there’s nothing…”

“Just stop, Bellamy.” Jasper says and slaps his shoulder lightly. “There is no use in lying to us. It’s not like you hide it very well on a normal day anyways.”

“Seriously,” Miller adds. “Watching you two interact is like watching a rom-com. You know they will end up together but the path to get there is all sorts of messed up.”

Everyone laughs at the comparison, but Bellamy listens to everything they say. Has he always been so transparent? He thought he hid it pretty well. It’s not like it matters. There is no way she feels the same towards him. 

“I am not saying you guys are wrong, but Echo was different. I finally fell for someone that wanted me back. It felt good to have love returned rather than unrequited. Before I met Clarke, I had no trouble with girls.” The guys laugh in agreement. “But ever since, she is all I’ve ever thought about. Until Echo, that is.”

The boys stop talking for a few seconds, taking in how serious Bellamy is being right now. They each finish their beers and Monty buys the next round. After they each get their fresh drink, Monty tells Bellamy, “Why don’t you just talk to Clarke? Maybe she does feel the same?”

“Why don’t you guys tell me? You all seem to know more about all this than I do,” he retorts.

“Dude, you never told us what happened with Echo today!” Murphy yells, effectively changing the subject. Bellamy is curious why it needed changing but goes along with it. He explains everything that happened from his phone call with Echo to him kicking her out of his office. The mood is lightened by the bizarre story and Bellamy requests for any solutions to his problem. 

“BREAK UP WITH HER!” They all yell at him in unison.

“Did you not hear me pour my heart out a second ago? I don’t want to give up on her when I think she can change. Maybe she will eventually be someone everyone can get along with.”

“Face it, there is no other way,” Monty explains and continues to list off everything that Echo has done, some repetitive from what Murphy said Friday night. “Let’s start from the beginning, shall we? She starts out all nice, the perfect girl, everything you want in a girlfriend. She wants to be with you nearly every day, and you with her. Typical, nothing to see here. But then you run into your friend, a friend, unbeknownst to yourself, that you flirt heavily with. Literally anyone else sees it, so new girlfriend gets jealous. Semi-typical, who wouldn’t be upset as their boyfriend flirts with another woman?”

“Ok, I think that’s good, Monty,” Bellamy says. 

“I’m not done,” he replies and holds up his index finger in Bellamy’s face. “New girlfriend then proceeds to forcibly change you and how you live to what she desires. Maybe it’s to get you to stop thinking about Clarke, but the greater possibility is so your world revolves around her. You weren’t able to talk to your friends, hang out with your friends, or generally have any fun without her. She consumes your life. Then, when you finally start to see there is something darker beneath her surface, she distracts you to get you to forget about it. The explains today. She is aware you know something is wrong, that you are getting uncomfortable. She is molding you to exactly what she wants. Need I go on?”

“No, I’ve got the picture.”

“Well said, Monty, but I’ve got more to add,” Murphy says. Bellamy groans, not wanting to hear any more but knowing he needs the extra push to do what needs to be done. “She purposefully made me lose my game, for reasons I still have no clue about.”

“She tried to get you stop talking to Clarke when you were convincing her to stop drinking,” Miller adds. “Thanks for that, by the way. She was starting to scare me with how many she had.”

“Not to mention she copied your apartment key without your permission! And then seduces you in your office with he freaking door open? How much more do you need?” Jasper asks.

“I get it everyone, and you’re probably right. I should just end it with her. It will be the best for everyone.” Bellamy truly does see now that it’s for the best, but those feelings he had for her in the beginning don’t want to go away. “I’m going to go home and sleep on it. Besides, it’s a Monday night, we probably shouldn’t be drinking like this anyways.”

“No, you aren’t going to sleep on it,” Murphy says. “Jasper, call in the cavalry and tell them to meet at Bellamy’s apartment. It’s an emergency.”

“Excuse me? Why mine?”

“Because, idiot, it’s the scene of the crime.” Everyone but Bellamy laughs at his joke. Ten minutes later, the guys are all waiting at Bellamy’s place for the girls to show up. When Octavia, Harper, Raven, Emori, and Clarke stride through the door, they immediately sit down in the living room. Everyone is gathered in a circle, sitting anywhere in the room. 

“What’s with the 911?” Raven asks. 

“We are gathered here today to help our dear friend Bellamy get rid of his Echo shaped problem,” Murphy stands up and says. He starts pacing in front of everyone as if he is giving a prepared speech. “We need options to drive her away so we can all get back to our normal lives.”

“A little overdramatic, don’t you think?” Emori asks her boyfriend.

“No! This chick has entered one of my best friend’s life and I barely see him anymore. She makes all of our lives miserable when we are with her…and we’ve only been in the same room once!” Murphy exclaims. “So, anyone got any ideas?”

“You could do it the smartest way and get a restraining order,” Harper suggests. 

“I don’t want the police involved unless she gets really bad. I don’t think this qualifies yet,” Bellamy explains. He already knows she is going to be hurt. There is no need to pile it on with legal matters. 

“You could try acting as crazy as she is to get her to back off,” suggests Miller. 

“Echo is batshit crazy. Bellamy isn’t capable of one-upping her on that,” Jasper counters. “And if he is, I don’t think I ever want to see it.” Everyone nods and mumbles in agreement. Bellamy is glad they all vetoed that for him. 

Octavia pipes up and says, “You could make her so jealous she would decide to move on?” Bellamy doesn’t see it, but Clarke’s eyes go wide and they bore into the side of Octavia’s head.

“Yeah, and how would I do that?” Bellamy asks, even though he has a pretty good idea of what she means. He won’t put her through that. 

“I know you haven’t broken up with her yet, but what are the chances she will actually leave you alone when you do?” 

“Slim to none,” Monty answers for him.

“Exactly. So, since we have already established she is very jealous of Clarke, you should flirt with her whenever Echo can see it. Then maybe she will see you moved on and finally leave.” Octavia is clearly proud of her idea.

Bellamy considers this. It could possibly work. Echo, as he has been enlightened, is jealous of Clarke, but what about his real feelings for Clarke? What if he pushes too hard and she is repulsed by it? He doesn’t want to mess anything up with their friendship. Also, this isn’t just his decision anymore, and by the look on her face, this is something Clarke has no desire in participating in. Her cheeks are red, she can’t look him in the eyes, and she keeps wiping the palms of her hands on her pants. 

“There is probably another way, O. There’s got to be.”

“Then what do you suggest, big brother? I’m all for helping you get out of this, you know I am, but I haven’t exactly heard you come up with any spectacular ideas.”

“Well, why don’t I just break up with her and see what happens?”

Monty says, “We already discussed this. Her possessive and obsessive tendencies will likely overshadow the breakup. She will make you feel like you did something wrong by trying to leave, you will apologize, and then you will be back to square one.”

“How could you possibly know that?” Bellamy asks.

“It’s what you were thinking, right?” he slightly snaps back.

“Guys…” Clarke’s quiet voice says. 

“Maybe, but maybe I would be stronger. Ye of little faith?”

“Guys…” Clarke raises her voice, but still not enough to overpower the brewing arguments.

“Bellamy, Monty is just trying to help,” Harper says calmly.

“By telling me how I will just roll over and let her step all over me?”

“That’s not what I was doing.” 

No one knows who is talking anymore.

“Can everyone calm down?”

“Well, this wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Everyone is talking at once, trying to get the previous person to quiet down and listen when Clarke finally raises her voice above everyone else’s, “GUYS!” They stop arguing and look at her. “I’ll do it,” she says quieter now that she has their attention.

“Clarke, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Bellamy says. She is sitting across the room from him, all their friends between them, but he feels like it’s just them in the room. 

“I have to. She needs to go because there is something about her that just… I don’t know. The faster she leaves, the faster we can all get off the edge of our seats.”

“Thank you,” he says quietly. Despite the feeling that they were only talking to each other, the whole room erupts in cheers. 

“Looks like Octavia gets the W on this one, folks,” Murphy announces. “So, how’s it going to go down?”

Bellamy thinks about his exchange with Echo in his office. He told her not to contact him until he is ready. For once, he thinks she will listen to him and wait. She knows that if she continues to push, he will break, and not in the way she wants. Little does she know she already broke him. 

“I won’t reach out to her until Wednesday. It will give me time to figure out how to do it as well as make her feel like she is giving me the space I asked for today. We know she won’t take the breakup seriously, so she will still try to be in touch with me.”

“How about on Friday we come back here again so there is a better chance for her to show up,” Clarke suggests. 

“Good idea,” Raven says. “When she shows up, it will be showtime. We will act like you two were supposed to be broken up, since that’s what you would have told us, and will tell her that she is welcome to stay, but it looks like you have moved on.”

“We will have to improvise to her responses,” Octavia says. 

“Good thing we are wonderful improvisers,” Jasper laughs and self-fives with Monty. “We will get this done. She will be gone in no time.”

“It looks like we have a plan, people!” Murphy shouts. “Meeting adjourned, and we shall reconvene Friday night, as per usual.”

“Ok, dude, you can stop now,” Bellamy tells his friend. “It’s over.”

“Alright. See you losers Friday. Let’s go Emori, it’s past my bedtime.”

Bellamy watches as his friends leave his apartment. Clarke is about to walk out the door but tells Octavia and Raven that she will meet them down in the car. He is curious what else she wants to add. Maybe she is going to reinforce that this is all an act? Maybe she is going to back out altogether?

Clarke walks over to him on his couch and sits next to him. “You know I’d do anything for you, right? You are one of my best friends.”

“I just want you to know that you don’t have to do this. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything like that. I can find a different way, if you’d rather me do that.”

“Bellamy, I literally just said I’d do anything to help. Let me.” Clarke gently takes his hand and gives it a squeeze before getting up and leaving for the night. 

How the hell did he get in this position? He has to pretend to flirt with the girl that he has crushed on for years while she believes he is pretending but he knows in his heart that it’s all too real and she will probably just go back to thinking of him as her friend and he will wallow in his feelings for her again and on and on and on it will go. All this work just to get rid of one girl? How has it come to this? At least he has a plan, though. How can this possibly go wrong?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang's plan goes to work, but a small complication arises.

Wednesday comes around way too fast. Bellamy told his friends that he would break up with Echo, and he still will, but he doesn’t have to feel good about it. He knows she needs to go, there has been too much bad since she entered his life. What he doesn’t like is the deception afterwards. Maybe it will work out like he wants, and she will leave him alone after today. He justifies their plan as only a backup in case the breakup doesn’t work. 

Bellamy sits on his couch and stares at his phone sitting beside him. He moves to pick it up and to make the call, but he hesitates. What is he going to say when she gets here? “Hey, you’re crazy, and I can’t handle it anymore?” No, probably not. “Echo, I don’t know what happened, but my friends don’t like you and I am starting to see why?” Strike two. He wracks his brain for the best thing to say, and once he finds it, he dials her number. 

She has always said she lives twenty minutes away from him, but she oddly arrives in seven. Add that to the list of strange. And she actually knocks, at least that’s an improvement. He opens the door for him, and once she is inside, she plants a kiss right on his lips. He can feel himself melting into it, so he gently pushes her away and sits back on the couch. She follows directly behind him, sitting sideways and facing him with a concerned look on her face.

“Echo, we need to talk.”

“I figured as much since you finally called me here,” she says. Finally? It’s literally been a day since he last saw her. 

“I want to break up.” After all his thinking for the perfect way to do this, he figured the simplest was the best. That way she can’t read too much between whatever lines she thinks there would be. 

“No, you don’t.” She leans he elbow on the back of his couch and that look of concern fades away. “That’s just your friends talking. You don’t actually want what they want.”

Bellamy thinks for a minute. She’s got a point; it was them pointing out everything they thought was wrong with Echo. It was them who kept saying she was bad for him, but all he ever felt was happiness with her. Maybe his friends really were just thinking about themselves. He decides to push her further. “But my friends care about me. They care about who is in my life, and I value what they think. They wouldn’t do that to me.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t value their opinions.” She brushes his cheek with her thumb. “All they have done is try to split you from the one source of happiness you’ve had lately. How is that friendship?” 

Everything starts to get jumbled in his head. The plan, his feelings, his doubts. Taking advantage of his silence, she leans in for another kiss. He doesn’t fight back this time. He feels her trail her hand down his chest, under the hem of his shirt, and back up again. Her kisses become more persistent as he turns towards her and places his own hand on her waist. 

He begins to think maybe she is right. They only met her once, how would they know? He was happy. Yes, there were a few things that bothered him, but that happens in the beginning of a new relationship. Right? 

Right…?

He rethinks his decision to break up with her until, as he starts kissing her throat, she says, “Besides, the one really bringing you down is that Clarke girl. She probably isn’t good enough for anyone.”

Bellamy pushes her away from him with more force than last time. “Why would you say that? You have no idea who Clarke is.”

“Oh, please Bellamy. You think I don’t know how—”

“No, you don’t know anything about any one of my friends! You saw them once and you drove them away. No one trusts you and I was so blind with my feelings for you that I couldn’t see how toxic you really are.” Finally, his head clears, and he remembers what he brought her here to do. “Go, Echo, we are done. Don’t come back.”

She isn’t fazed a bit by his outburst, “You will want me back eventually, I know it.” Then she gets up and walks out of the apartment. He is stunned by how calm she was through that entire situation. What bothers him even more is how she got so close to making him think his friends were wronging him. He also believes Monty, now, that Echo is not going to stay away. Commence Plan B. 

It’s Friday morning. After Bellamy’s breakup with Echo, he hasn’t heard a word from her. He expected texts and calls at least yesterday. There was nothing when he woke up, nothing on his way to work, and nothing during his classes. He even got to go home and relax after work with no interruptions. He felt so free yesterday. 

He is on his way to his only class when he thinks he see something across his apartment building parking lot. Not something, but someone. He doesn’t get a good look, but the feeling resonating deep in his gut tells him he already knows who it is. Echo is watching him. His freedom soon bubbles into something else. 

Fear. 

By the time his friends start arriving, he already has those stupid decorations thrown in the trash, some visibly hanging out so Echo will see them as she comes in. If she comes in, that is. Everything she ever put up in his apartment is taken down and thrown away. 

“Nice to see everything is put back to normal,” Murphy comments as he strides through the door. He also looks into the fridge. “Especially our beer. I missed our beer.”

“No, kidding, brother.” Octavia. “I don’t know if I could handle coming here with all that crap on the walls and around the room.”

He listens to everyone poke fun at the situation and, while he truly knows they mean the best, Echo’s voice nags in the back of his mind telling him that his friends are really the problem. 

Standing in the kitchen by himself, thinking about how this might go down, he feels another person walk up to him. 

“How are you feeling?” Clarke asks him quietly. She is the only one that hasn’t said anything about what’s about to happen. Her calm voice brings him back to the room and he takes in how beautiful she is. Her blonde hair is slightly wavy and frames her face perfectly. Her blue eyes pop out against the slight amount of eye makeup she is wearing. He can tell she dressed up a little for tonight, trying to make it more believable. What she doesn’t know is she could be in rags sewn together, and he would find her the most beautiful person in the room. “Bellamy?”

“Oh, sorry.” He shakes head a little before continuing, “Yeah, I guess. What about you? I’m not the only one that has something to do tonight.”

“I’m fine. Something tells me it won’t be that hard.” Clarke smiles at him and joins his sister and Raven in the living room. He agrees, it probably won’t be that hard to flirt with her either. Despite this agreement, it doesn’t register to Bellamy that Clarke just admitted it’s easy to flirt with him. 

Everybody goes about their business as usual; drinking, talking, playing games, watching tv. Bellamy still hasn’t talked to Clarke since that first time when she got here. How could he have thought this would be easy? He stands at the beer pong table, supposedly watching the game, when Monty and Jasper come up to either side of him. 

“So, how’s the plan going?” Jasper asks. 

“Well, we haven’t spoken since everyone arrived, so I guess it’s not.”

“I would say go talk to her, but you’ve been staring at her nearly the entire time,” Monty says. “Not in a creepy way like you-know-who, but in a loving way. You know what would go well with that? A conversation.”

“Guys, she doesn’t like me back. How am I supposed to flirt with the woman I love when she doesn’t love me back?”

“First of all,” Murphy interrupts after winning his game with none other than Shaw, finally getting the win he should have gotten last week. “You don’t know for sure how she feels. Secondly, you need to do this. Echo needs to see how she isn’t wanted anymore.”

“Harsh, don’t you think?” Emori comments on her boyfriend’s words.

“Ok, fine, maybe a little. But it doesn’t change the fact that she needs to go.”

Bellamy stops listening to his friends and watches Clarke head to the kitchen. They are right, he just needs to go and talk to her. Besides, Echo could show up at any minute. Leaving the pong table, he settles himself beside Clarke, leaning his hip against the counter, arms crossed. 

She hops up onto the counter and looks down at him. “Took you long enough. I almost thought you were bailing. Maybe giving her a second chance?” She raises an eyebrow at him and takes a swig of her beer. 

“No, nothing like that.” He can’t tell her how nervous he is talking to her. They have been friends for years now, and he is finally getting the opportunity to act on his feelings. And he’s blowing it. 

Bellamy is starting to think Echo isn’t going to show at all, but of course he is wrong. He sees Echo in his peripheral vision standing in the doorway. He ignores her, as the plan goes to work. Octavia Raven, and Harper meet her and start talking, presumably about why she is here and how they thought Bellamy broke up with her.

“How was your day at work?” He knows she can get pretty crazy stories working in the ER all morning.

“Fine, the usual. Stupid people getting into trouble and getting hurt.”

“Maybe they thought they were having fun and it went wrong,” he suggests. 

“I don’t know how kids think flinging themselves 20 feet in the air just to see if they can stick the landing on a target is fun. A 15-year-old came in with a shattered leg, arm, and a collapsed lung.”

“You know what it was like to be a kid. Can you honestly say you’ve never done anything stupid?” He doesn’t mean to argue, especially when they are supposed to be doing pretty much the exact opposite, but it’s how it always goes with Clarke and him. He looks out of the corner of his eye to see if Echo is watching. He isn’t sure what his sister is saying to her, but it’s keeping Echo rooted in that spot, and he can see her face getting angrier. 

Clarke’s eyes narrow, but thankfully her face isn’t visible from Echo’s position. She may think they really are just arguing. “Of course I have, but it’s never resulted in major injuries!”

Bellamy closes his eyes and sighs. “I’m sorry. I’m just nervous about this not working.” Bellamy looks straight into her eyes and wills her to understand how he feels for her; wishes she would feel the same way. 

Clarke’s soften at his worry and leans in close to his ear and whispers, “Relax, it’s almost over.” She doesn’t realize the chills her voice gives him or the way his heart beats faster in response to their proximity. She believes this is all an act; and for her it is. 

“Keep talking to me,” Clarke says quietly. He must be looking more nervous now.

Echo breaks through the girls but is stopped again by Monty and Jasper, the expert improvisers. He can hear them invite her to play beer pong, which isn’t what he expected, but it would put more space between him and her and more time being like this with Clarke. He doesn’t want it to end. She ignores their request and heads towards Bellamy again.

“Look at me,” Clarke commands. When he turns his head towards her, she places her lips softly on his, parting them. Her hand caresses the side of his face as she presses harder. He is stiff, and he knows it, but at least it does what it intended to do. He doesn’t see, but the sound of Echo stomping out of the room and slamming the door shut is music to his ears. Clarke doesn’t pull away until a few seconds after Echo is gone, but when she does, he notices the faintest blush rising in her cheeks; the same one rising in his. 

“That ought to do the trick,” he jokes around with her. He can’t ignore the electricity between them. 

“I’m glad I could help,” she says. Clarke hops down and immediately puts some space, too much in Bellamy’s opinion, between them before saying, “now we can go back to normal.” It could be just him, but she almost looks disappointed. He is about to say something, maybe about how he truly feels he’s not sure, but she turns and walks away before he can. 

Bellamy follows not long after and everyone convenes in the living room. He sits, once again, across the room from Clarke, even though every cell in his body wants to push Octavia out of her seat and be right beside her. 

“Congrats, Bellamy!” Murphy exclaims. “I believe we’ve won! You should be able to get back to normal now; all of us should.” He looks between Bellamy and Clarke and smirks. “Is there anything you’d like to say? Anything *cough* to anyone *cough* at all?” At the end of his stupid hint, Bellamy rolls his eyes. 

“Thank you, guys. I don’t know if I could have gone through with this without you. Hey, Monty and Jasper, what would you have done if Echo had said yes to playing beer pong?”

“Honestly, we have no idea. We never actually thought she’d say yes.” Monty says and looks at his best friend. “And looks like we were right,” followed by their infamous self-five.

“Yes, I’m glad you were. And thanks to the others that ran interference. O, Raven, Harper, I’m sure it wasn’t easy being around her given how much you don’t like her.”

The three girls start laughing and Raven says, “It was because we hated her that made it so fun. Honestly, she has problem if after tonight she still thinks you are into her.”

Bellamy looks like he is going to be done talking, but Murphy stands behind Clarke on the couch and starts waving his arms and pointing at her. He sighs and finally says, “And thank you most of all, Clarke. Out of anyone, I couldn’t have done this without you.” Murphy pumps his arms with success and winks at Bellamy behind Clarke’s back before sitting back down next to Emori as if nothing just happened. 

Once Murphy is sat down again, he says, “And that kiss? Icing on the deception cake.”

“You needed help. What are friends for?” Bellamy’s heart cracks at her words, but he doesn’t show it. Instead, he looks around to his friends that were at the bar when he confessed his, apparently already known, feelings. Each person, even Murphy, looks sympathetic. Choosing not to dwell on something he already knew, he hands out the next round of beers to celebrate the victory. 

It’s midnight before anyone leaves. It was nothing like last week when Echo was here because everyone was actually enjoying themselves. Murphy and Emori are heading out the door the same time Clarke is; Octavia and Raven already went to the car. Bellamy watches his friend stop Clarke and say something quietly. Next thing he knows, she is walking towards him instead of out the door. 

“What was it that you wanted to talk about?” Clarke asks him as she sits down oh so close to him. He can feel his breath quicken fractionally, and he looks at Murphy over Clarke’s shoulder. He winks once again and gestures for him to talk to her. He must have been looking at Murphy too long because Clarke says, “Earth to Bellamy?”

“Oh, sorry. I, uh, just wanted to thank you again for helping tonight. I’m glad I have such good friends that have my back.”

“Right, of course.” She shakes her head and scoots away from him, adding a little bit more space between him. “Like I said, I’m glad I could help. Well, I should get down to the car. I don’t want to keep my drunk roommates waiting.”

“Um, yeah. I will talk to you later, I guess,” he says. 

“Definitely. Goodnight, Bellamy.” Then Clarke walks out of the room, and Bellamy feels like he failed once again. Why is this so hard, for God’s sake? Instead of ruminating on how he should have made his move once everyone was gone, he goes to bed. Nothing says distraction like sleep. 

Bellamy wakes up at 10:00 the next morning, the longest he has slept in on a Saturday in a long time. The beginnings of a hangover threaten to keep him in bed, but now that Echo is out of his life, he has an errand to run. One that he admits he should have done a while ago. 

But so much for Echo being out of his life, he finds out as he gets home from his errand. He is all the way in the kitchen setting his bag down before he notices the girl sitting at his dining room table. He has a mini heart attack, but it doesn’t really surprise him that she showed up. Most of all, it makes him angry. 

“What the hell, Echo! We broke up, and as you clearly saw last night, I am with Clarke! Just stay away from me and my friends!”

“Oh please, Bellamy. I know that was just an act, I’m not stupid.”

“It wasn’t an act, we are together.” This is a bold statement given that he hasn’t talked to Clarke about any of this. “Why can’t you accept the fact I’ve moved on?”

“Whatever you think you feel for her doesn’t matter. I know you will want me back. After I leave here, I promise I will leave you alone until you call, and you will,” she calmly informs him. “Until then, I have one simple, final request.”

“And why would I give you what you want?” he spits. 

“It’s simple, Bellamy. I just want one last game of chess. Can I get that, especially if you are so sure this will be the last time I will ever see you?”

Bellamy is utterly confused at this request. Echo absolutely sucks at the game, why would she ask for her losing to be the last thing they did together? Seeing there is no direct harm, he gives in. “Fine, but only one game.”

“That’s all I want.”

Five minutes later, the game is set up and Echo makes the first move. Ten minutes and twenty moves after that, she says, “Check mate.”

Bellamy stares at the game board. Nearly all of his pieces are gone, and he is indeed in check mate. How is that even possible? Only a week ago Bellamy kicked Echo’s ass every single game they played. 

“Here is a lesson, my dear Bellamy. I get what I want, and I know how to get it. Sometimes it takes planning, extensive planning. You will probably find out what I mean in the near future. I am going to leave now but remember this; you will want me back.” 

Echo leaves before he can say anything back. It’s for the best, too, because he has no idea what he would have even responded. He immediately calls the one person he most wants to talk this through with. The one person who won’t joke or make fun but will definitely help. Clarke picks up on the third ring.

“What’s up?” she asks.

“Can you come over? I need help,” he hopes he doesn’t sound as desperate as he feels, but this needs to be done. Echo needs to be gone.

“Yeah, sure. Now or—”

“Yes, please, now. If that’s alright for you.”

Clarke chuckles into her phone, “It’s not like I’ve got anything to do today. Are you alright? You sound a little off.”

“I will explain everything when you get here,” he says and hangs up the phone. He wracks his brain for what Echo could have possibly meant by her extensive planning. He’s already figured out from the way she dominated him in chess today that she has been playing him for a while now. Maybe even since the beginning. 

Sooner than he thought possible, Clarke knocks on his door. He assumes, rather hopes, its her anyways. Bellamy opens his door and the blonde rushes into the room.

“It’s her isn’t it? What we did last night, it didn’t work, right?” Clarke sounds as worried as he feels, so he guides her to the couch to sit. He sits directly beside her and faces her, but he doesn’t let go of her hand. Her soft, warm hand that he has imagined holding for years.

Not the time, Bellamy. 

“Yes, she came by today. She was in here when I got back from running to the store. She must have been right outside, too, because I wasn’t gone long.” He continues to explain the chess game and how she won so fast. He tells her what she said afterwards, and the crease in Clarke’s brows deepen as her concern does. He concludes with, “I think it’s time to call the police; get that restraining order that Harper suggested in the first place.”

“Normally I’d agree. If this was just a random, weirdo, stalker girl, I’d agree. But from what you just told me, Echo has been planning this. I don’t think the police are going to be able to stop her from getting what she wants.”

“Then what?” he exhales and leans back against the couch, eyes raised to the ceiling. “How am I supposed to get rid of her if the cops can’t do anything?”

“I don’t know. Maybe call in everyone again, get some suggestions?” Clarke grabs a couple beers from the fridge and comes back to her position on the couch.

Bellamy chuckles despite his mood. “I love our friends to death, but I don’t think they will be able to come up with any real solutions. Murphy will make a joke out of everything, Harper will suggest the police again, Octavia and Raven will probably offer to hunt her down and kill her. Obviously, that’s not the way to do this.”

“Oddly enough, I think you are spot on,” Clarke laughs as she opens the beers and hands one to Bellamy. He takes a drink and sighs. 

“I called you because you are the only one I thought would actually talk this through with me.” Then he remembers what he told Echo while she was here. “By the way, I maaay have told Echo that we are dating. She was calling our bluff on last night, so I defended it. I know I shouldn’t have said that before I talked to you about it, but it sort of just came out.”

“It’s fine, Bellamy, I get it. Besides, maybe that’s what we should do; continue from last night? Give her reasons to believe we are actually a couple?”

“I don’t want to put you through that. It’s one thing to flirt with someone for a night, but to pretend to date? I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable or do anything to our friendship.” What he doesn’t say is he doesn’t feel like pulling his own heartstrings by fake dating the woman he truly loves. It won’t end well for him. 

“You aren’t putting me through anything, though. I’m volunteering. It was literally my idea.” Clarke playfully rolls her eyes at him. “And nothing could ruin our friendship, Bellamy. You’re too important to me.” 

“Are you sure it would work?”

“I can’t be 100% sure, but we know that while she won’t be calling, texting, or showing up anymore, she will probably be watching. I think it’s the best shot you’ve got.”  
Bellamy sighs. He’s really going to agree to this. “Then let’s do it.” 

“Ok, it’s settled. I have one little thing, though.” 

“What?” He anticipates her reinforcing that this is all.

“I don’t want to smother you given what you’ve been through. If I ever come on too strong, promise me you will tell me.”

Bellamy doesn’t show it, but he laughs in his head. He thinks it’s funny how Clarke think she would ever smother him. Having her in the same room is like breathing the cleanest air in the world. Everything is better with her around. 

“I promise,” he says. “But if we are going to do this, I should ask you one last thing.”

“Yes?”

“Do you want to go to lunch with me tomorrow? Day Trip Diner? Chocolate cake?” His chest warms at the blush she produces. 

“Of course, I would. Should I meet you there around noon?”

“How about I pick you up instead?”

“That sounds perfect,” she says. “I will see you tomorrow, then.” She leaves after giving his hand a squeeze and his cheek a small kiss. He just asked the girl of his dreams out on a date and managed to not sound like an idiot. Downside? She still thinks it’s fake. 

Suddenly, remembering the errand he ran before Echo arrived, he heads to the kitchen. Bellamy unpacks the plastic bag and sets his purchase on the counter. He gets to work on his project and within thirty minutes, the new set of locks his landlord approved are installed with a brand new set of keys. Finally, he can rest knowing Echo doesn’t have access to his apartment anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Echo is quite the chess player? That doesn't look good for him. Hope you like it!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and Bellamy go on their date, both of them being idiots in love and not willing to admit their true feelings.

For the first time since the nightmare he calls Echo started her tyranny on his life, Bellamy got a full night of sleep. It probably has something to do with going on his first date with Clarke today. He doesn’t acknowledge the fact that it isn’t real for her; that’s something to ruminate on later. For now, though, he lays in bed and thinks about his upcoming event.

He imagines them sitting at a table for two, eating their meals, and just talking. It’s nothing that they haven’t done before, with others around obviously, but today is different. Today he is going to attempt to tell her how he feels. Maybe, Bellamy thinks, if he does it before they get too far into the façade, it will hurt less if she rejects him. 

By the time his dream date ends, it’s time for him to get ready for his real date. He steps into the scalding shower and scrubs himself clean. When he’s no longer able to stand the heat, even though it felt amazing, he walks back into his bedroom and gets ready. He dons his best three-quarter sleeve deep red Henley with his best pair of jeans. Not over dressed, but still looking pretty good, he thinks. To top it off, a small dose of his favorite cologne. Now he’s ready. 

He grabs his new apartment key and heads out the door. When he gets into his car, he already has the feeling that he is being watched. He knew it would happen, but he didn’t think the feeling would be as palpable as it is. Ignoring it, he makes his way to Clarke’s place. 

Ten minutes later, Bellamy is standing outside her door, willing his hand to knock. He reminds himself that this isn’t real for her and he is just playing a fantasy from his head out in the real world. Yeah, that sounds creepy. He knocks anyways, and Octavia answers the door. 

“Hey, O. Where’s Clarke?”

“Just finishing getting ready,” she informs him and pulls him inside before closing the door. “You’re looking good.”

“Thanks. Need to look the part, I guess.” He looks himself up and down, assessing himself as if he hadn’t already done that for nearly fifteen minutes before he left. He looks back at his sister to find her grinning like the Cheshire cat. “What?”

“You don’t need to act with me, Bell.”

He tries his best to fight off the blood rushing into his cheeks and says, “I don’t know what you mean,” as calmly as possible. 

“Whatever. Let me fix one thing,” she says as she rakes her hand through the hair he got to perfectly sit the way he wanted it to. Smooth and controlled. Well, as controlled as his curls could be. Now they are as unruly as they started out. 

“Thanks, but my hair was fine.”

“It was, but now it looks better,” Octavia says, looking pleased with herself. She walks away and lands on the couch in front of the TV, leaving Bellamy alone to wait for Clarke. His sister starts audibly munching on her popcorn, and he gets the desire to knock the bowl out of her hands as she watches whatever is on. He hates that sound. He is so distracted by it he nearly misses the gorgeous blonde walking towards him. Octavia finally stops chewing.

Clarke is in a knee length blue sundress and black strapped wedge heels. Her hair is bright and wavy, and it ends just at her shoulders. He finds the smallest hint of pink lipstick coating her lips and some simple makeup to make her beautiful blue eyes even more striking. She walks right up to him and guides a chunk of hair behind her ear, showing off subtle stud earrings. 

They stare into each other’s eyes for a moment until that damned sound returns. Both Bellamy and Clarke lose fixation on each other to look at Octavia. They find her staring back at them instead of the movie, annoyingly eating her popcorn again.

“You okay, Octavia?” Clarke asks her.

“I’m great!”

“O, you know the TV is the other way, right? Or could you not hear it over your insanely loud chewing?”

Octavia rolls her eyes but is still smiling. “Haha, very funny. What you losers don’t realize is I am watching two shows at the same time!”

Bellamy is about to ask what she even means by that, but a jolt of electricity runs through his hand. Clarke is holding it and basically dragging him outside. Before he is completely out the door, he watches his sister give him a wink and a thumbs up. Then she returns to watching her show. One of two, apparently. 

Bellamy shuts the door behind him and expects his hand to be let go of, but it isn’t. Clarke holds it in silence all the way down to his car. It’s probably for the best since they have no idea when Echo is watching. She has always known what to do. 

“You look fantastic, Clarke. I feel a little underdressed,” he says before he backs out of his parking spot. 

“You are not underdressed. You look very handsome, as well. I especially like the hair,” she compliments and looks at him through the corner of her eye. “I’ve always liked it more when it’s untamed.”

He gives a silent thanks to his sister, but something tells him she already knew that Clarke liked it like that. By the time they arrive at the diner, they have already shared stories about recent events, big or small, in their lives as if they hadn’t seen each other for weeks. Given the situation, there is probably more truth to that than he’d like to admit.

As soon as Bellamy opens his door for her, like a gentleman, Clarke takes his hand again. He feels the electricity, but this time he knew it was coming. That way he doesn’t look as surprised as he feels inside, which is good because he has that feeling again. The tangible feeling of being watched. They walk inside the diner and find themselves a seat, Bellamy fighting the urge to look over his shoulder the entire time. 

He pulls out the chair for her at a small two-person table just like the one from his dream this morning. 

“Thank you, kind sir.”

“You’re welcome, m’lady.” They start laughing at their cheesiness as a guy asks them for their drink orders and hands them their menus. Despite their lack of necessity for the menus, they look through them. Both Bellamy and Clarke hold them covering half their faces, stealing glances when the other isn’t looking. Bellamy looks at her, only her eyes visible. He can’t help but imagine what those eyes would like much closer to him. What they would look like as he closed the distance between them before feeling her soft lips on his. 

“Bellamy?”

His head clears, and he finally hears Clarke talking to him. “Oh, sorry. What were you saying?”

“The waiter is here for our order. I already did, what are you going to have?”

“Right. I will have the chicken bacon ranch wrap with no tomatoes. Thanks,” he says and hands the waiter his menu. 

“Do you feel it, too?” Clarke suddenly asks. If this were a different scenario, he may have had to ask what she meant. 

“Yeah. She has to be somewhere, right? I mean, we could just be paranoid, but I have a feeling we aren’t.”

“Same here.”

“Anyways, we may as well ignore it for now. So, how are classes going?”

Bellamy honestly hasn’t been paying a lot of attention to his work. It’s kind of hard to do when there is a crazy woman on his heels every day. “Probably not as good as they should be. The good part is I planned a project for my classes, so they have been working on those for most of the time lately.”

“That’s good. Echo may be ruining your private life, but we can’t let her take your professional, work life, too.”

“I’m trying my hardest not to let her. I just need this to be over.”

Clarke’s eyes soften a bit, and she says, “It will be soon, hopefully.” Their meals come, and they eat with little conversation, but more stolen glances. Each one can barely stop looking at the other, apparently. 

“I will never get over how good this food is. And there is so much of it,” Clarke says when her burger is gone. She looks full, so he decides to tease a bit.  
“I guess we will have to skip desert, then. Wouldn’t want you getting sick, right?”

She smirks at him and slightly squints. “If you don’t order that chocolate cake, I will. Two slices, both for me.”

“Fine, fine,” he surrenders with his hands in the air. He orders their cake, and when it gets delivered to them, Bellamy sees a familiar car out the window. It’s Echo. They were right; she has been there probably the whole time. 

When Clarke takes her first bite, he informs her with a wide smile on his face, “Don’t react, but Echo is watching us from her car.” Then he takes a bite of his own. He wants to ask Clarke what she wants to do while Echo is watching, but she lovingly takes his hand across the table and caresses his fingers with her thumb. 

“Just act like you are having the time of your life right now,” she says.

“I don’t need to act, Clarke.” Oh shit, he thinks. He wasn’t planning on saying that. Bellamy uses his other hand and rubs the back of his neck in embarrassment. She takes it in stride, though, and laughs like he just told a funny joke. That stings a bit, but he knows she wasn’t laughing at what he said. 

“I don’t know about you, but my chocolate cake is amazing,” she tells him. 

“I’m not sure there could be a piece that doesn’t taste good.” Clarke shifts their arms so bother of their elbows are resting on the table with their fingers interlaced. The position is completely visible from Echo’s car. Clarke is very good at this. He notices a crumb on the corner of her mouth, so he reaches over and wipes it away saying, “Most people eat the entire thing, not save little pieces for later.” He is careful not to let his hand linger for too long, even if the feel of her lip under his thumb makes him want to do just that. 

“I couldn’t help myself. I just needed to have some for after dinner tonight, and you just took it away from me.” Her eyes crinkle in amusement. 

“I can’t believe I dragged everyone into my mess,” he says, suddenly serious. “All over a stupid girl.”

“Bellamy, this isn’t stupid. You fell for a girl, and it didn’t turn out for the best. It happens.”

“This most certainly does not just happen.”

She gives his hand a small squeeze of encouragement. “Ok, so this is slightly less common, but it doesn’t matter. We will get you through this. Everyone deserves to be loved, even if it doesn’t last forever. She may have turned out crazy, but in some twisted way, I know she loved you as you loved her.”

“Thank you, Clarke. You always know what to say.”

“What are best friends for?” There are those words again. Best friends. After this is over, they are all going to go back to before Echo entered his life. Bellamy pining for a girl he knows doesn’t want her and all his friends knowing about it. Why can’t he just tell her how he feels?

Bellamy pays the check and they walk out of the diner, hand in hand once again. Thankfully, Echo parked on the other side of the parking lot, so their backs are turned to her as the make their way to his car. Deciding to kick it up a notch since he knows Echo is there, he puts his arm around Clarke’s shoulders and kisses her temple. He marvels at how natural it feels. 

“Nice touch,” Clarke says. 

“Got to be convincing.” He feels her sigh against his side, and she mumbles something under her breath. If he felt like hearing more of how this isn’t real, he would ask her what she said.

When they get in the car, a little bit of the tension of being watched is lifted. Then, after he watches Echo drive out of the parking lot, it all subsides, and he slouches in his seat.   
“I know I just said this,” Clarke starts softly with a hand on his shoulder, “but we will get you through this. She can’t stick around forever.”

“I don’t know, it seems pretty likely that she can.” Bellamy remembers what Echo said about always getting what she wants. Yeah, getting rid of her could be harder than they thought. 

“Whatever it takes, we will do it.”

Bellamy looks into her eyes, deep into them, and says, “I know, and I can’t thank you enough.” He backs out and drives Clarke home. They don’t talk the entire time back to her apartment, but Clarke takes his hand as he drives and that’s all the comfort he needs. 

He walks her up to her door, partially because even if they can’t see Echo it doesn’t mean she’s not there, but mostly because he’s dreamed of walking her to her door after a date for a long time now. They walk side by side, their swinging arms brushing against each other every once in a while. When they reach her door, she leans back against the frame and looks at him. 

“Well, here we are,” he says in a low voice. “I’m sorry I took your last crumb of chocolate cake. I will have to make up for it sometime.”

Clarke laughs with her gut and a small section of her hair falls forward. “I suppose you will.”

Without even knowing what he is doing, he reaches up to tuck the stray piece back behind her ear and gently traces his thumb over her cheekbone. He is amazed at how easily he gets lost in the blue of her eyes. Bellamy feels him gravitating towards her, but he can’t make himself stop. It’s not like he wants to stop, but he never wants to push Clarke into something she doesn’t want. 

Their lips are inches apart when he feel’s Clarke’s hand rest on his chest. Shit, he’s gone too far, he knows it. Bellamy quickly pulls away and rubs like back of his neck again.   
“Uh, sorry. I will go,” he stammers.

“Wait, Bellamy, what’s wrong?” Instead of answering, Bellamy turns away from her to leave. She takes his hand to stop him; making him look back at her. “Are you alright?” Her eyes search his for answers, but all she sees are impenetrable walls guarding his true feelings. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. I had a great time today. We are pretty good at this charade. Anyways, I will see you soon, probably. Can’t slack off. Bye.” All his words are rushed together in one breath. He doesn’t give her time to reply again before he bolts. Little does he know, if he had stayed and talked to her, he would have seen how disappointed Clarke was that nothing came out of what just happened. 

Bellamy chides himself the entire ride home for how he acted. He could tell she was worried, and that’s the last thing he wanted to do. He thought there was a decent probability this fake dating would make him strong enough to finally tell her how he felt. Looks like the opposite is happening. When he gets to lounge on his couch, he texts Murphy and tells him to come over. He needs someone to talk to. Obviously trying to wade through his feelings on his own isn’t working. 

Unsurprisingly, as soon as his friend shows up, he makes his way for a beer. Bellamy lays on his couch and Murphy slouches in the recliner, both drinking their beverages.

“So, are we about to star in our very own chick flick today?” Murphy asks him with a grin on his face. 

“Do you ever take anything seriously?”

Murphy’s smile fades a little, and he says, “I’m sorry, dude. What do you need to talk about?”

“I almost kissed Clarke today. Like, half an hour ago.”

“That’s great!” He observes Bellamy’s defeated expression. “That is great, right?”

“Normally, yeah. But before it happened, I pulled away. I felt her hand on my chest, and I took it as her wanting me to stop. I panicked. Why couldn’t I have just stayed? Maybe there was another reason for it?”

“Yeah, you totally should have stayed.”

“Thanks, Murphy. I’m glad I asked you here to make fun of me.” Bellamy silently wonders why he did text Murphy in the first place. It probably has something to do with him being his oldest and one of his best friends. 

“Look, I’m not trying to make fun, but I also don’t think it’s right to lie to you. ‘Everything will be fine’ or ‘I’m sure you made the right call’ may be what you want to hear, but it’s not what you need. This is what you need to hear: You have to find out how she feels. This not knowing is killing you inside and I hate that. I, among others, have known how you feel for Clarke for a long time, even as you were dating Echo. I’m not saying you were only using Echo to get over your feelings for Clarke, I’m sure you did fall for her, but what you have for Clarke has never gone away. Even if, and that’s a big if, she rejects you romantically, our friends and I will be there for you.”

“You’re right, I need to figure this out once and for all. At least if she doesn’t want me that way I will know. I can move forward, and we can all still be friends. That is one thing I am sure of; even if it doesn’t work out, this group will never be separated.” 

Murphy stands up and motions for Bellamy to do the same. When he doesn’t Murphy pulls him up. “Come on, this chick flick can’t end without a bromantic hug.”   
Bellamy just laughs and obliges his friend. “Thanks, man.”

“No problem. Let’s watch some manly movies to get this ‘feelings’ talk out of our systems.”

“Fine, but remember one thing, Murphy: you love chick flicks.”

Murphy concedes and raises his hands. “Yeah, I do, you caught me.” So, they watched a few good movies before Murphy said he had to leave to take Emori out for dinner. By the time he goes to bed, he decides that tomorrow is the day. The day that he will tell Clarke how he feels no matter what happens.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The truth between Bellamy and Clarke finally comes out, but at what cost?

It’s Monday. Bellamy swears his weekends get shorter every come around, but he rolls himself out of bed anyways. No classes, but his office is open for an hour and a half. He decides he will probably stay a little longer, though, to catch up on grading and lesson plans. He can imagine his students are getting frustrated by the delays. 

He goes through his regular routine and before he knows it it’s 10:00 AM, and he is sitting at his office grading his student’s papers. Most are decent, but he can tell some had no effort put into them. Ten papers (and a headache) later, his phone dings under the pile of need-to-be graded assignments. He cringes at the sound, immediately thinking Echo is trying to contact him again, but digs it out anyways. 

Thankfully, he sees Clarke’s name on his screen instead. His headache melts away and a seed of joy replaces it. 

**Clarke: When are you out of your office?  
Bellamy: Usually 11:30ish, but I’m probably going to stay longer to catch up on work.  
Clarke: Ok **

That’s the end of the conversation. In the last half hour, two students came in to ask questions about the material. At least it gave him a break from the constant reading. After his open hours is when he works his best, anyways. 

Just as soon as Bellamy feels the pain creeping back into his head again, a knock comes from his door. The same wave of panic washes over him, but he relaxes when he sees blonde hair through the slim window of the door. When he opens it, he finds Clarke there with Subway in her hands. His stomach growls just by looking at it, which makes her laugh. Oh, that beautiful laugh.

“Hungry?” she asks and leans against the frame. 

“Starving.” He steps aside to let her through and closes the door behind her. “I didn’t know you had today off.”

“I switched shifts with Niylah because she needed tonight off, so I will work tomorrow.”

“That was nice of you.” He pulls out the chair across from him for Clarke to sit down. She sets the food on his desk and pulls out his favorite sandwich. Of course she knows his favorite: Steak and cheese with lettuce, pickles, and ranch. Simple but delicious. 

“How has your morning been?” 

“It’s been pretty normal for a Monday.”

“That’s good.” The slightest bit of awkward tension fills the room, the most that’s ever been between them. She also sounds a little nervous, and Bellamy thinks he has an idea why. Yesterday he almost kissed her, until he felt her hand on his chest. She is probably trying to think of a way to let him down easily. 

Which is why he needs to just tell her, even if here in his office wasn’t exactly the setting he had in mind, or that he hasn’t had enough time to prepare himself. That’s probably for the best, though. He needs to finally let her know how he fell for her all those years ago, and how he has never stopped thinking about her. Bellamy wants her to know how much she has meant to him ever since she entered his life. Even if she doesn’t reciprocate his romantic feelings, despite his original doubts, he knows they will still be good friends. It may take time to get back into their natural rhythm, but it will happen. 

He opens his mouth to spill it all. “Thanks for lunch. You didn’t have to do that.”

Well shit. That didn’t work. 

“It’s no problem. I didn’t have anything else to do, and I figured you would probably be hungry after your hard day’s work.” She looks down, but expresses a ghost of a smile, showing that while it’s tense, they are still good. 

“Well you were right. About me being hungry, anyways. I wouldn’t call this a hard day’s work.” He smiles back at her. _Come on_ Bellamy, he thinks to himself. “I actually have something I’ve been wanting to tell you.”

“Yeah?” Her eyes flick back to his, a glint in them. For a second, he thinks it almost looks like hope.

“First of all, I want to apologize for how I reacted yesterday. I shouldn’t have run off like I did.”

“Then why did you?” The glint in her eyes is gone, replace by challenge. He was not expecting that. This is his chance. 

“It’s because I have—”

Another knock interrupts him, and he doesn’t finish his sentence. Clarke’s shoulders slump as he walks to the door. He finally gets the courage to do what he should have done so long ago, and he doesn’t get to. 

He swings the door open, annoyed, and sees Marcus Kane, his department chairperson, standing opposite him. 

“Hello, Professor Kane. Is there something I can I help you with?” Bellamy asks. He never gets random visits like this. The most he ever sees Kane is during formal department meetings. 

Kane looks in and sees Clarke sitting quietly at his desk, ignoring the conversation. Only Bellamy knows that she is actually listening. “Can you come to my office right now? I would have called, but I was coming back from a meeting near here.”

“Sure, yeah, I can be there in five minutes,: Bellamy confirms. Kane nods and walks away. There goes telling Clarke, of course. When he closes the door and turns around, he sees Clarke already cleaning up their lunch. He apologizes to her, “Sorry, but I guess I need to go.”

“It’s no problem,” she says, but he can tell she is a little worried. 

“Hey, I’m sure it’s fine. There is probably just some new guidelines or rules that I need to be read into.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re right.” Clarke throws away their trash and opens the door. Before she leaves, she glances at him. She looks like she is about to say more but instead reaches out and squeezes Bellamy’s hand. When the door closes, all he can think is that he failed once again. 

No time to think about it now, though, because he has to be in Kane’s office right about now. Something tells him this is more than guidelines or rules. When he arrives, he walks through the open door and sits across from Kane. It feels very different being on the other side of the desk. 

“So, what’s this about?” That sounded ruder than he intended. “Is there something wrong?”

“This is about an…incident from last week.”

“Last week?” He thinks and only comes up with one possibility of what Kane could mean. Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. “Sir, you don’t understand—”

“What I understand is you had your girlfriend in our office during open hours and participated in…extracurricular activities.” Man, this is awkward as hell. “Not only that, but it was witnessed by two students, one of which reported you.” 

“Look, I can explain.”

“Please do.” Kane sits back and interlaces his fingers together in his lap. “Otherwise I have no choice but a two week suspension and have a substitute take over your class.”  
Bellamy begins the long story of him and Echo. He skips the beginning when things were good since that wouldn’t mean anything to him. Instead, he explains how Echo has been acting and invading his life. He watches Kane the entire time.; he has to believe him. Bellamy’s job depends on it.

“Sir, the situation is being controlled. Nothing like that will ever happen again.” Bellamy subtly pleads. “I promise.”

“Okay. Given your situation, I will let it slide this time. But, if I find out it happened again, even with another person,” hinting at Clarke, he guesses, “I will have no other option but suspension. Understood?” Kane stands and Bellamy follows. 

He reaches out towards Kane to shake his hand, “Yes, I understand.” Kane shakes it firmly. Then he heads out the door. As soon as he is far enough from Kane, Bellamy lets out a sigh and drags his hand down his face. Their plan had better work. If it doesn’t, there is no telling how bad his life could get. Having been at work long enough for a Monday, he goes home. 

He is there for all of ten minutes when persistent pounding comes from his door. At least its not Echo. She wouldn’t be so desperate to get in; she’s too calm and calculating for that. Bellamy swings the door open and before he can even greet the person on the other side, they are in his apartment.

“Hey, Clarke. What’s up?”

“You know what’s up. I could tell by your face it wasn’t just a normal meeting. So what did he say?” He should have known she could see right through him back at his office. 

“I got reported for basically having sex in my office during my office hours. Kane wanted to suspend me for two weeks.” Bellamy watches Clarke’s face contort into anger.

“That bitch!” she exclaims. 

He takes her hand and guides her to the couch, sitting so close yet so far, only his unsaid true feelings separating them. He doesn’t let go of her hand, caressing her knuckles absently with his thumb. He feels the tension leave her body as he does so. “It’s alright, though. I explained to Kane what has been happening, and he let it slide this time. It just can’t happen again, which means this, us, has to work. Echo needs to be gone.”

“This will work,” she assures him. She is staring into his eyes, his soul, and he remembers what he was about to tell her earlier today. 

“I still need to tell you something. It’s long overdue, but I don’t want to pressure you into anything you don’t want. It’s actually what I was going to say when you were in my office before I got interrupted. No matter what, know that we will always be friends and that I don’t want anything to be awkward or weird between us and our friends or that—”

“For God’s sake, Bellamy, say what you want to say,” Clarke pleads and squeezes his hand. 

Go big or go home. “I have feelings for you, Clarke, and I have for a long time.” She pulls away from him and starts pacing in front of him. He prepares himself for the letdown, but for the first time he is okay with it. The only response he won’t be okay with is if she doesn’t want to be friends anymore because of this. 

“Well,” she begins as she faces him again, standing right in front him. He feels a pang in his chest when he notices the small hint of tears welling in her eyes. “It’s about damn time you said something!”

“I, uh, guess so?” He’s not really sure what is going on. 

“Bellamy, I don’t think you get it. I have felt the same way since I met you! But for years I thought you only saw me as a little sister because I was Octavia’s best friend. I mean, how could you love a little sister that way?”

“And I never said anything because I didn’t want to mess up our friendship. Not just between us, but the group either. I wasn’t going to be the reason we all stopped being friends.”

“You have to know that wouldn’t happen, Bell.”

“I do now, which is what gave me the courage to tell you how I felt today. It’s how I became okay with the idea of your rejection.”

“My rejection?” Clarke starts laughing and, once again, Bellamy isn’t sure how to respond, so he just looks down at his hands. Seeing his expression, she sits back next to him, takes his cheeks in her hands, forcing his eyes to hers, and tells him, “This conversation doesn’t end in rejection.”

Bellamy smiles and finally leans in to gently meet her lips. They are as soft and sweet as he has always imagined them, and he can taste the cherry chapstick he knows is her favorite. He brings one hand to the nape of her neck and slides his fingers into her blonde hair. She starts kissing him more intensely and wraps her arms around his neck, pulling him even closer. Before he knows it, she is straddling his hips and his hands rest on her waist. 

Bellamy trails slow kisses from her mouth over to her ear and down to her collar bone. He hears her sigh, which just makes him want more, so he flicks his fingertips under just the hem of her t-shirt. The warmth of her skin spreads like fire through his veins igniting his deepest desires. He feels himself falling prey to these desires; the ones that he has expertly kept suppressed all these years. As much as he wants this, wants her, he has to make sure that’s what she wants too. 

“Do you want to keep going? Are we going too fast?” he asks between kisses, slightly out of breath. 

Clarke, also breathing heavier than normal, replies, “You know, I don’t typically sleep with a person right after our first real kiss.”

“That’s perfectly fine.” He starts retracting his hands from her waist, but she stops him. “I thought—”

“But that person also hasn’t been the one I have been dreaming about every night for at least three years.” She replaces his hands on her, but this time on her thighs. She kisses him once on the lips, then continues, “The one that, no matter what was going on in my life, good or bad, was always there for me. Bellamy, this is the opposite of going too fast. We are catching up on what should have happened so long ago.” 

“You promise?” He wants a concrete confirmation to continue what his mind and body is begging him for. 

“I promise.” 

At her consent, he traps her lips between his once again and swiftly picks her up. He feels her legs wrap around his waist and her fingers entwine into his dark curls. She sees to it that there is no space between their bodies as Bellamy makes their way to his bedroom. It’s time to show Clarke how much she has meant to him all this time. 

\--------------

Bellamy wakes up but tries not to move too much. He doesn’t want to jostle Clarke around, mostly because he doesn’t want the current situation to change. If he could spend every day like this, Clarke tucked into his side, his arm around her shoulder keeping her close, he would be the happiest man alive.

He imagines a life with her as a constant in it. Living with her as they keep dating, get married, maybe have some kids, probably a couple dogs, and grow old together. Okay, he thinks, maybe it’s a little crazy to be thinking that far ahead when they haven’t even gone out on their real first date, but he can’t help it. They may have both danced around their feelings for each other all this time, but there is no denying that they are meant to be together. 

He is brought out of his fantasy when the woman in his arms starts shifting. “Hey,” she greets groggily. 

Bellamy places a light kiss to her forehead. “Hey.”

“So that happened.” She looks up at him, smiling. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I’m still dreaming. I can’t believe it took us this long to get here,” he answers. Clarke starts laughing into his chest. “What?”

“I can’t say you were the only blind one for all this time, because we are both guilty of that, but since we started the whole ‘fake’ relationship, it’s like you worked extra hard not to see it.”

“Long story short, you are probably right. A little. But to defend myself, I don’t think it’s that I didn’t _want_ to see all the clues and hints. I think I was so set in my way of thinking you couldn’t possibly return my feelings that I didn’t let myself even consider the idea that you felt the same way already. I didn’t want to force you into anything I thought you didn’t want. That’s why I ran away when your hand went to my chest after lunch yesterday.”

Clarke shifts again so that she is on her stomach, one arm folded on his chest, and her head resting on her hand. She looks up at him with sympathetic eyes and asks, “You thought I was pushing you away?”

“Yes,” he admits. “I thought I had gone too far; that I’d pushed too much. I panicked and fled.”

“You know, that was actually very sweet of you.”

“Really? Running away from my feelings was sweet?”

“I would rather have had you kiss me, sure,” she says with a smirk, “but knowing now why you left, yeah, it was sweet. You cared so much about how I would feel in the situation, even if you did get it dead wrong.”

Bellamy smiles at Clarke and plays with the hair pooled on his chest. “I did, didn’t I?”

“Dead. Wrong.” She stretches up to peck him on the lips. It’s a type of kiss that promises more just like it to come. 

“Well, at least now when we go out we don’t have to hold back or fake it,” he says. “Not that either of us were actually faking to begin with, apparently.”

“True, but it’s Monday. Can we not tell anyone we are together until Friday when we are all together? I kind of want this to be just us, even if only for a few days.”

“Whatever you want, Clarke. The real question is, will you be able to keep it from Octavia and Raven? They are practically mind readers.”

“I’m the one that told them about my crush on you when I was ready. They would have never figured it out. I will be fine. Will you?” She raises an eyebrow at him.

“Yes, I will. I just have to avoid face-to-face encounters with my best friends. I’ve learned that I wasn’t nearly as good as you at hiding how I felt.”

“Sounds like a plan, then.” Clarke snuggles back into his chest and not long afterwards, falls back asleep. Bellamy soon follows. What’s a better way to spend a Monday night?

The next few days are filled with complete and utter bliss. Clarke is always with Bellamy. They could be watching movies, going out for food, ordering in, Bellamy even cooked Clarke a gourmet meal for after a long shift of work. In the beginning, it was tense whenever they were out in public, not just because they were officially a couple, but because they were officially a couple and they could still feel the presence of Echo; watching and waiting in the distance. But finally, Thursday lunch at the diner went by with no tension, no feelings of being watched.

“She’s gone, I can feel it.” Bellamy had said to Clarke across their table. “I think she finally left.”

“I’m so happy for you, Bell. I’m glad you can put this behind you. We can all put her behind us and move forward.”

After lunch, when Clarke had to go into work for a night shift, he had texted the group chat saying that they are meeting at his apartment again tomorrow. He knows it should have moved to probably Murphy’s this week, but he pleaded the win and said he wanted to be able to drink whatever and however much he desired. He deserved that. 

It’s Friday now, and people will probably start showing up anytime. “How do you want to tell everyone?” Clarke asks him. They are lounging on the couch, Bellamy’s arm around her shoulder, holding her close. Him and Clarke may have been inseparable these past few days, but it’s nothing like how it felt with Echo. Being with Echo all the time felt like a weight pressing him down into a mold that wasn’t his shape. She was forcing him to be what she wanted, and it didn’t matter what he thought or wanted. With Clarke, he can be who he really is. There is no molding, no shaping into someone he’s not. 

“We should wait until everyone is here. I don’t mind repeating that we are finally together,” he smiles and gives her shoulder a squeeze, “But the ones who get told first probably don’t want to hear it every time someone new shows up.”

“Lincoln and Shaw will be here tonight, too. How lucky for them to both get a Friday night off when we have such good news to spread.”

“It’s like it was meant to be,” he says before kissing her, slow and gently. They only stop when someone knocks on the door. “Let’s do this.”

Murphy and Emori are the first ones, as usual. It’s not surprising since he knows Murphy likes to start drinking early. Then Octavia, Lincoln, Raven, and Shaw. Finally, Miller, Jasper, Monty, and Harper stride through. The groups were only minutes apart, but the waiting felt like hours.

Before the party gets swinging too much and people are too drunk to fully understand the announcement, he gets everyone’s attention. 

“Hey, guys!” Bellamy shouts. Thankfully they all look at him standing in his living room. They are dispersed around the place, but they are all paying attention. “I’ve got something to say. As you all know now, we believe Echo is gone. These past few dates with Clarke have gone by without any eerie feelings whatsoever.”

Everyone cheers and raises their glasses. “The wicked witch is dead!” Murphy yells and everyone starts laughing.

“There’s more, though. You all also know that we got here because Clarke and I have been dating to get her to stay away.”

“Don’t you mean fake dating?” Jasper asks with a wink. 

“In the beginning, yes. But since Monday,” Clarke walks over to him and takes his hand “we have been officially a couple.”

Nothing happens. No reactions. 

“Really?” Clarke asks the room, flabbergasted. “Nothing?”

Everyone but Clarke and Bellamy starts looking at each other, and then they all start to slowly smile (kinda creepy). Suddenly they all surround them in a huge group hug. 

“ROM-COM FOR THE WIN!” Miller shouts. Of course, only the guys understand what that means, and they all start laughing their asses off. The girls join, but mostly because they think the guys are losing their minds.

Murphy places a hand on Bellamy’s shoulder. “Congrats, man. I’m glad you finally got the girl of your dreams while getting rid of the one that nearly ruined your life. But, I knew there was something going on these past few days.”

“You did, did you?” Bellamy asks skeptically.

“Well, yeah. I mean, how could you not want to hang out with my gorgeous face since Monday? Now I know it’s because you knew I could read you like a book.”

“Fine, you caught me. Clarke wanted to wait, so I had to avoid my best friends.”

“I forgive you. Again, I’m glad it worked out.” Murphy heads to the beer pong table, no surprise there, to challenge someone even though he knows he will win. 

Bellamy is enjoying the night, not having as much to drink as he thought he would want to, but still enjoying it. When Clarke walks up to him, he pulls her into a kiss. He will never get tired of that. 

“Forget to do something today?” she asks.

“Umm, it sounds like I probably did?”

Clarke makes a very obvious glance over to the fridge, and Bellamy mutters under his breath, “Shit.”

“Yup. We are almost out.”

Bellamy grabs a sweatshirt from his coat rack. “Okay, I will go grab some quick from the gas station down the street.”

“Don’t worry about it. I always have an emergency pack in my car for exactly this reason.” She takes the sweatshirt from his hands. “I’ll be right back.”

“I can get it, just give me your keys.”

Clarke pecks him on the cheek. “I’m a big girl, I can handle it. I’ll be back hopefully before Murphy drinks the last cold one.” And then she’s gone. 

Bellamy starts walking over to watch the current pong game, which weirdly doesn’t have Murphy playing. It’s Shaw against Lincoln, the two that barely get to play, so there is actually a fairly equal chance for either guy to win. He is almost there when his sister pulls him into the kitchen where Raven and Harper are waiting. 

“So? How’s it been finally dating the girl you’ve been pining over since my freshman year of college?” Octavia asks him. 

“O, I wasn’t pining, I…” Seeing all the girls’ raised brows, he concedes. “Ok fine, I was pining. Whatever. To answer your question, it’s been great.”

“I’m happy for you,” Raven says. “I’ve been roommates with Clarke for a long time and this is the happiest I have ever seen her.”

Harper says, “Yeah, I may not live with her, but there is no mistake you guys are perfect for each other. Too bad it took this long for the two of you to see it when literally everyone else saw it before you.”

The girls start laughing and Bellamy rolls his eyes. He’s not mad, not even annoyed, he’s just glad the uncertainty is over and him and Clarke are together. Sounds like everyone is glad for it, too. 

Bellamy watches a whole game of beer pong before he realizes Clarke hasn’t come back yet. Granted, Shaw was playing again (he’s so bad at it but who is Bellamy to tell him he can’t play), so it didn’t take long, but she surely should have been back by now. 

He checks his phone for the time. It’s been ten minutes since she left. A sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach stops him in his tracks. He feels the blood drain from his face and his heart starts beating a mile a minute. He slowly walks out of his apartment, not wanting to cause panic if he is wrong, but once he is out of earshot of his friends, he sprints down to the parking lot. When Clarke came over earlier, there were practically no cars in the lot. This means her car is right outside his building. Bellamy bursts through the building door and sees her right away. 

Clarke.

Slumped on the ground.

Not moving. 

Lying in puddle of blood from an ugly gash in her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We all know who did this. What is Bellamy going to do? Echo told him she always gets what she wants, even if it means taking out everyone in front of her.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke fights for her life and Bellamy, with the help of the crew, conjure up a plan to finally get Echo to where she belongs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully any medical aspects don't seem too outright wrong. I researched the best I could. Bellamy is in for an emotional rollercoaster.

There is so much blood.

How can there be _so much_ blood?

Bellamy runs over to Clarke, _his_ Clarke, and he can’t think of anything but how stupid he was to let her walk outside by herself. Of course Echo hadn’t been done watching; done waiting. And now Clarke has to pay the price for his mistake. He will never forgive himself. 

The gash is located on her left temple, stained deep red, and the whole left of her face is covered. Without taking any more precious time to think, Bellamy scoops her into his arms. The warmth of her blood immediately seeps through his shirt. 

“Hey…,” he mumbles close to her face. “Stay with me, Clarke. Stay with me.” He keeps repeating that, the phrase getting more and more undecipherable through his growing, broken sobs. As he gets nearer, he hears his friends cheering and having fun. Thankfully, his door is still open so he can get in without fumbling Clarke’s slack body too much.

“Yes! The beer is finally here!” Murphy yells. He can only hear Bellamy walk in, but he is too focused on his game to see what is happening. Everyone is too focused on the fact that Emori is actually about to beat her boyfriend for the first time ever. 

Harper is the first one to look at him as he lays Clarke carefully down on the island in the kitchen. “Oh my god! Bellamy what happened?!” she screams. Now no one is paying attention to the pong table. 

“She went to get more beer and then she was talking a long time so I went down to check on her but then I saw her on the ground and her blood was all over and I didn’t know what to do but I figured it was safer up here and—”

“Breathe, big brother,” Octavia says. 

“I can’t breathe! Echo attacked Clarke and it’s my fault! Have you looked at that injury? It’s not just a small cut. She was hit hard and with something really heavy!” 

“Yes, we see that.” His sister places her hands gently on his shoulders and forces him to look into her eyes. “But all we can do now is get the police and an ambulance here.”

Raven steps in beside the siblings. “I just got off the phone with 911.” Harper holds a clean dish towel from the cabinet against the wound.

Bellamy doesn’t move from Clarke’s side, his hand resting on the clean side of her face. His thumb caresses her cheek like it’s the most natural thing in the world. He watches her closely. If there wasn’t any blood staining her beautiful face, it would look like she is sleeping, and he has recently found out how much he likes watching her sleep. Seeing the stress of whatever happened during the day melt out of her body. 

Finally, after twenty or so minutes, the ambulance shows up. The police won’t be far behind. He can feel the tears sliding down his cheeks again when he feels somebody pull him away. He jerks his arm out of their grasp, but they don’t give up easily. “Hey, man,” Murphy’s voice grumbles behind him. “Why don’t you get cleaned up?”

“I don’t want to,” Bellamy spits. “I need to be with her.”

“The paramedics need to get her; you can’t be in their way. The police will be here soon.” Something is forced into his hand, and Bellamy looks down at it. It’s a fresh t-shirt. “Change.” Murphy squeezes his shoulder and walks away to comfort Emori. 

Wanting to argue more, but realizing his best friend is right, he changes clothes in his room. When he gets back to the living room, he is bombarded with everyone’s voices talking at once. 

“What happened?”

“Who did it?”

“We know who did it.”

“How’d she do it?”

“She is crazier than any of us thought.”

More and more questions and statements are voiced, but Bellamy can’t stand it anymore. “Guys!” he exclaims. Then he adds, softer, “We need to get Echo once and for all. It’s finally time to tell the police everything. I just wish I had done that in the beginning.”

“I’m so sorry, Bellamy,” Octavia says, tears gathering in her eyes. In fact, there are no dry eyes in the apartment. Bellamy looks over to where the paramedics are loading Clarke onto the stretcher. He walks over and takes her hand as they wheel her away and down to the ambulance. He would have made it farther than the doorway if the police hadn’t stopped him. 

“You don’t understand, officers. I need to be in that ambulance,” he pleads, voice cracking. 

There are two of them effectively blocking his path to Clarke. “I’m sorry, but we need you to explain everything that happened tonight,” the shorter one says. “You and everyone else here.”

“Look, I will give you whatever information you want to know, everyone here will, but can’t we do it at the hospital?”

The older and taller one starts to explain, “The time immediately after the incident is crucial. The more—” 

“It can’t be too crucial, or you would have been here a lot faster,” Murphy scoffs. Bellamy sees in his peripheral vision Emori holding her boyfriend back. As much as Bellamy agrees, Murphy shouldn’t be making comments like that, not if they want to get their way. 

“As I was saying,” the officer continues, ignoring Murphy. “The more we wait for potential, even the smallest of, leads, the less likely we are to get whoever did this.”

“We know who did this!” Raven shouts. The rest of the group nods and murmurs in agreement.

“If I tell you who did it, can I explain everything else at the hospital after Clarke is taken care of?” Bellamy asks. He can feel Clarke getting further away, and there isn’t much time before she is in the ambulance and gone without him. He knows he shouldn’t be freaking out like this, but he feels like if he isn’t with her every step of the way that he is giving up on her; that she is alone.

“Yes, the name, and the vehicle too, would be enough to go on for now. We can get an APB out on them, and you can get to the hospital.” Bellamy officially likes the short officer better. 

Bellamy quickly says, “Her name is Echo Azgeda and she drives a blue 2002 Honda Civic.” Bellamy is nearly out the door before he even finishes his sentence. He makes it just in time, the ambulance doors closing just as he runs out his apartment building. They allow him in, and he settles next to an unconscious Clarke, gently taking her hand.

Her face is pale, and her skin is cold. Is that supposed to happen? Why does she feel like she is dying? She can’t be dying! So many questions run through his head, but he can’t make anything coherent enough to ask the paramedics. He watches them buzz around her, changing the gauze on her head, cleaning the wound, monitoring her heartbeat. _Yes, focus on that,_ Bellamy thinks to himself. _There is a heartbeat, so she is alive. She is alive, she is alive, she is alive._

It feels like an eternity before they get to the hospital. He jumps out first so the staff can get in and help Clarke. He follows them inside but is stopped when they take her into a trauma room. 

“You can’t go in there,” the ER doctor tells him. He knows better than to fight this one, but it doesn’t stop him from looking in the window. They are examining her, scanning her head, keeping her alive. Then she is suddenly taken out of the trauma room and rolled on her gurney towards a set of double doors he knows he also won’t be able to go through. 

“Wait!” he exclaims to the group of doctors. “What’s going on? Where are you taking her?” 

The one that told him he couldn’t go in the trauma room comes back to give a quick explanation. “Clarke has severe head trauma; a depressed skull fracture and a brain contusion. We need to get her to surgery, monitor her ICP, and get that fracture fixed.” She walks away just as fast as the explanation was, but at the last second, she turns back. “It’s bad, sir. You should prepare yourself.”

“What does that mean?” Bellamy asks as his heart sinks to the bottom of his stomach, but she is already gone and through the doors, leaving him to collapse into a waiting room chair. Prepare himself? How can he prepare himself for this? They only get five days of pure happiness before it’s stripped away from them?

He sits there for twenty minutes before his friends join him. He stands to greet them, but his legs don’t want to cooperate. He feels just how tired he is as his knees buckle and he is back in the chair. He didn’t know he could get this exhausted, mentally and physically, within the span of an hour. 

“Where is Clarke?” someone asks, Bellamy isn’t sure who. 

“They took her to surgery. Something about a fracture, a contusion, and an ICP. I have no idea what any of it means,” Bellamy tells them, then suddenly becoming slightly more alert, “Where are the police? I was supposed to talk to them here.”

Octavia stands behind her brother and rests her hands on his shoulders. He hears her say from behind, “We talked to them for you. We explained what’s happened with Echo and what’s led up to this point.”

“And they took it? Even though I’m the one that was closest to it all?” Bellamy thinks that’s odd, but he doesn’t care. He didn’t want to have to explain how he made bad choice upon bad choice that eventually got the woman he loves nearly killed.

“They were wary, too, but we assured them that you have told us everything that’s ever happened, so we always knew what was going on. They said they are on her, tracking her name and car and anything they can find on her,” his sister explains. 

“Thank you, all of you.” Bellamy gets nods and quiet replies, but everyone is focused on Clarke. Bellamy’s friends take turns sitting in the chairs and pacing, then every once in a while they switch it up so some are sitting and the others are pacing. Bellamy can’t move, which leaves him to only his thoughts. 

Bellamy remembers a few days ago when he tried telling her how he felt; how much of a mess that was. He was about to do it until Kane stopped him. He didn’t think he would get the chance again, but he remembered how worried she was about him when she stormed into his apartment. She cared about him so much, and he didn’t even realize it until he was waiting for her rejection. When he kissed her, it’s like the weeks, even years, of pain melted away because Clarke loved him. 

He remembers what came after that kiss. It wasn’t just sex, and it wasn’t just sleeping together. Their bodies were expressing how much they truly loved each other in a way their words couldn’t anymore. He remembers how soft her body felt under his, the sound of her voice as they rocked against each other, and the taste of her under his tongue. He almost feels the warmth of her laying in his arms, sleeping, when they were done and, if his eyes weren’t drained of tears, he knows he would be crying again. 

They may have only had a few days together, officially together, but their relationship has been going on since they met. He realizes how hard he fell for her back then, and now he knows she always felt the same way. Bellamy realizes if he only had the guts to tell her how he felt, none of this would be happening. He wouldn’t have tried to get over her with other girls, wouldn’t have dated Echo, and wouldn’t have gotten Clarke nearly killed. 

Bellamy needs to stop thinking. “Where are the doctors? It’s been almost two hours!”

Lincoln, always the calm in the storm, says, “She will be okay. The length of a surgery doesn’t always mean something is wrong. Sometimes it just means they are being thorough.” Then he wraps his arm around Octavia like she is the world to him, and as far as he knows, she is. Bellamy may not have liked Lincoln in the beginning, but he is glad they are together now. He is one of the best things that has ever happened to his sister.

Bellamy and company wait and wait and wait and wait, but nobody comes. Finally, nearing three hours in the operating room, Clarke’s doctor walks through the double doors. Forgetting how drained he is, Bellamy hops up from his chair and meets the doctors halfway. 

“So? How is she?” he asks.

“She will live. The damage was pretty severe, but she handled it very well. We got her skull pieced back together after repairing the brain bleed. She was lucky that despite the severity of the wound itself, there was no further brain damage. I predict no cognitive impairments if her ICP stays stable. We will monitor her for a few days just to make sure.”

Clarke will live and that’s all that matters right now. 

“Thank you,” he tells her. “When can I see her?”

“She is in the ICU right now, but you should be able to visit.” Then the doctor looks at the entire group of them. “But not all at once. Three in at a time at most, alright? She’s in room 102.”

Bellamy barely hears the room number before he is speed-walking down the halls. It takes him an couple extra minutes to find it, but when he does, he stops in front of the door and breathes. She is okay, she is alive, and she is on the other side of this door. He prepares himself for what he is about to see and quietly enters the room. 

Laying in the bed is Clarke, bandaged and hooked up to machines. It looks like she is breathing on her own, but there is a small tube coming from her wrapped head. The machine it’s connected to says “ICP” and is steady for now. That’s good, remembering what the doctor said. He scoots the chair from the corner of the room to the side of her bed.

Not long after he enters, Octavia and Raven join him. “How’s she doing?” Raven asks Bellamy. 

“Well, I don’t see any flashing lights or hear any crazy beeping, so I guess she is fine for now.” He caresses her hand just like he did in his apartment when he explained what happened with Kane. “I did this to her,” he mumbles, secretly hoping neither girl heard him. 

No such luck.

“You can’t believe that, Bell,” Octavia tells him.

“What am I supposed to believe, O? If I hadn’t started dating Echo, none of this would have happened.” Bellamy feels fresh tears slide down his cheeks. Not sobbing, but two gentle streams. 

“There is no way you could have known what would happen.” 

“No, but I could have seen the signs earlier. God knows she had multiple red flags”

Raven says, “Maybe, but do you really think she would have stopped if you had tried ending the relationship earlier? She’s not really the quitting type.”

“I know you both are right, but I can’t get it out of my head that I’m responsible.”

“What would Clarke tell you if she were awake right now?” Octavia asks. 

Bellamy sighs and looks at the love of his life. He knows where she is going with this. “She would tell me that I can’t always predict what people will do and that I can’t take responsibility for what I can’t control.”

“And you listen to Clarke.”

“And I listen to Clarke.” Bellamy feels his heartbeat slow down a fraction. They are right, and so would Clarke be. Now all he needs to do is let the police do their thing and be there for Clarke when she wakes up. 

Bellamy stays in the room as everyone else filters through. He had offered to leave and let the others come in three at a time instead of two, but his friends wouldn’t have it. They wouldn’t let him leave, and for that he is grateful. They all distract him with different stories. Some involving Clarke, some just to make Bellamy laugh. He doesn’t know how he would get through this without any of them. 

Actually, he knows he would probably leave to go punch some walls before tracking Echo down himself. He doesn’t want to think about that, though; doesn’t want to think of what he would want to do to Echo for hurting Clarke.

In the middle of Monty telling the story of how he and Jasper rigged an air vent to shoot whipped cream in Clarke’s face, Bellamy feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. He doesn’t even look at who it is, just reaches in and ends it. Not thirty seconds later, it comes again. Annoyed, he takes it out and looks at the name. 

But there is no name, just a blocked caller ID. A chill slides down his spine as he ignores this one as well. If they call again, he will know who it is. 

“Bellamy? What’s wrong?” Raven asks. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, and if Clarke could talk right now she’d probably say she can’t feel her hand.”

Bellamy lets go of Clarke’s hand. “I, um, just got two calls from the same number with a blocked name. I think we all know who it is.”

“She nearly kills Clarke and she has the nerve to call you again?” Shaw has always been a calm person, very opposite to Raven’s energy, so this is the first time Bellamy has ever heard him so angry. Raven walks out, taking Shaw with her, and lets Octavia and Murphy in. 

“She called you?” Murphy asks. 

“Yeah, and she will probably—” Bellamy is cut off by the third call coming in. Taking a slow breath, he answers it. “Yes?” He turns speakerphone on so his sister and best friend can hear as well.

“Hey, babe! I just heard about Clarke, and I’m so sorry!” If he didn’t know what Echo was capable of, he might have actually believed the concern in her voice.

“Do you really think I don’t know you did this? That you didn’t nearly kill Clarke! I swear on my life if Clarke dies from this, you better get used to running because I will hunt you down and-” 

“And what? Come on, Bellamy. I may be a little eccentric, but I would never have hurt her. I have no blood on my hands. And I know you could never actually hurt me.” 

“That may have worked on me before, but there is no way you are pulling me under your spell again. You will go down for this. I will make sure of it.”

Murphy chimes in, “No, we will make sure of it. All of us. Someone as calculating as yourself should know not to fight a war you can’t win. And we will win this war.”

“Fine,” Echo sighs, “but I warned you that I get what I want. And despite all the trouble you are going to cause me, I still want you Bellamy. Just think, we could leave tonight. We could go somewhere no one would find us and start a life together. I love you so much.”

“You don’t love me, Echo. You love having someone in your life because you’ve never had that before. And now I see why.” Bellamy is done feeling bad about what he says to her. 

Echo’s tone shifts to nothing but ice. “Have it your way, but neither you nor the police will never find me,” and she hangs up. 

Nobody talks for a few seconds until Murphy says, “That bitch doesn’t know what’s coming to her.”

“But seriously, how are we going to get her?” Octavia asks the two of them. “The cops are good, but Echo has proven she’s better.”

“Simple. I get her to meet with me. You guys track my phone and send the cops my way.” Bellamy’s only concern is the fact that Echo is smarter than that and will probably expect it when he agrees to see her.

“You know the problem with that,” Octavia says. 

“But you also know it’s the only way.” 

“I don’t like it either,” says Murphy, “but I agree it’s our best plan. I think we should have a group consensus, though.”

Bellamy knows that means they need to leave the room because they can’t have more than three in the ICU unit. He doesn’t want to, but he feels good about finally getting Echo behind bars where she belongs. “I agree. I will join you outside in a moment.”

They both nod and join the rest of the gang. When they are gone, Bellamy takes Clarke’s hand again and uses the other to caress her cheek. “Hey,” he whispers softly. “I will be right outside. We are going to get her and put her away. When you wake up, this will all be over. I promise.” Bellamy kisses her gently on the lips before leaving to decide how they are going to bring Echo down.

When he gets to the waiting room, he finds his friends already circled up and waiting for him. He sits down and starts explaining the plan: He will call Echo back and apologize for acting how he did. He will tell her that he is ready to be with her as long as no one else gets hurt. She is desperate enough to have him in her life that she will go along with it. He will have his GPS locater on his phone activated so both Monty and the police can find him anywhere. Bellamy will stall long enough for the cavalry to arrive. 

“It won’t be that easy,” Miller says. “She is scary smart, so there is a very good chance she will check something as simple as your phone location.”

“Miller is right,” Jasper says, more serious than Bellamy has ever heard him. “I think the idea is good though. You just need a GPS tracker that Echo won’t think of.”

Bellamy notices Harper staring off into space, so he asks, “Everything good, Harper?”

At the sound of her name, she looks around. “Is Echo tech savvy?”

“I mean, she never showed it when she was around me, but it’s possible, I guess.”

“Well, if there’s something I’ve learned from being in a relationship with a computer scientist, there is always a gadget for what you need.”

“It’s true,” Monty agrees and kisses Harper on the cheek.

Harper continues, “I bought this thing called Tile that I put on my keyring. Whenever I can’t find my keys, I just locate them using my phone.”

“I’ve heard of that, but isn’t the range too small for our purpose?” Raven questions.

“Normally, yes. But Monty upgraded the GPS so that the range was much bigger. Basically, it covers all of Sanctum.”

“That’s brilliant, Harper,” Bellamy says and grins a Cheshire grin. “I think we have our plan. I meet up with Echo, wearing Harper’s Tile 2.0 somewhere she won’t look, or notice at least, and wait for you all to find us.”

“When are we doing this?” Octavia asks. 

“As soon as possible. I want all of this over by the time Clarke wakes up. I told her it would be.” Bellamy eagerly pulls out his phone when a loud and persistent beeping sounds. Bellamy doesn’t have time to process where it’s coming from before medical staff barge into Clarke’s room. He runs over to the window to see what’s happening, but all he can see are people bustling around her and faintly hear through the thick glass orders being given.

Finally, someone moves so he can see the screens. The one monitoring her ICP is the one going crazy. What did the doctor say? Everything should be alright as long as her ICP stays stable. This doesn’t look stable! Her brain pressure is increasing, and her heart rate is dropping. 

He is losing her again, and all he can do is stand outside and watch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is Bellamy going to do? He will want to stay with Clarke while she fights, but Echo can't be allowed to get away! Bellamy promised this would be over when she woke up.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plan finally goes underway and Clarke's fate is revealed.

Bellamy watches one of the doctors inject Clarke with something and then the beeping of the monitors stops pounding against his eardrums. Everyone in her room relaxes which makes him and his friends do the same. When the doctor that he has been talking to through all of this comes out, he is on her right away. 

“What happened? Will she be okay?” he asks, voice full of desperation. 

“Everything is fine. I know how the monitors sounded, but it wasn’t as bad as it looked. We gave her a dose of mannitol to decrease the pressure and we will keep monitoring her.”

Bellamy feels even more tension leave his shoulders. “So this won’t happen again?”

“We can never say it for sure won’t,” the doctor says, “but something like this after a brain surgery, even a minor one, can be expected. This is probably a one-time deal as her brain adjusts to what happened.”

Bellamy doesn’t like thinking about what happened. How he found her by her car with her head bashed in. How there was so much blood he couldn’t see the left side of her face through it. How his actions nearly got Clarke killed. No. He doesn’t like thinking about it. 

“Can we go in again?” he asks. 

“Yes, but like before, only three at most at a time.” The doctor walks away leaving Bellamy to explain everything to everyone else. They listen to the short explanation he gives them, and he watches them all relax as he’d done. 

“Do you still want to do this right now?” Octavia asks her brother. 

Does he? The last thing he wants to do is leave Clarke when something could go wrong at any moment. But he also knows that the longer they wait, the smaller the chance of catching Echo becomes. They could let the police handle it and he could wait by her side until she wakes up, but they all know the police won’t outsmart Echo. They have to get this over with.

“Yes. I will call her after I go talk to Clarke,” Bellamy decides before slowly walking into Clarke’s room. He sits back down by her side and takes her hand. “You gave us all a scare. I know everything will be okay. You are going to wake up and we are all going to be here for you. I love you, Clarke, so I need you to wake up. I need you to still be here and alive when all of this is over.”

Knowing she won’t magically wake up this moment because he begged her to, he places a gentle kiss on the back of her hand and rejoins his friends outside. 

“Ok, it’s time.” Bellamy says. “I am going to call Echo and tell her I will go with her wherever she wants.” His friends nod in agreement, and he walks slightly away from the group. He pulls out his phone, nerves tingling all over his body. He lets out a long sigh as he dials her number. She picks up on the first ring. 

“I figured you’d call back eventually, but you’re lucky because I was about to split town.” Echo says. 

“Look, I’m sorry about how I reacted earlier,” Bellamy apologizes, ignoring the bile rising in his throat. “But I’ve thought about it, and as long as you promise no one will ever get hurt, I will leave with you. We can start that new life you talked about and I will never leave your side. We will work.”

“Do you really think I’m stupid enough to fall for that? You’ve made it pretty clear you’ve moved on.”

“If there is one thing you know about me, Echo, it’s that I will do anything for my friends and the people I love. If that means leaving with you to make sure they stay safe, you should know I will.” 

Echo doesn’t say anything for a while, but Bellamy can practically hear her wheels turning, determining if she can trust him. He can only hope she agrees to meet with him. “Fine. Come find me in twenty minutes outside the place we met and don’t bring anything. We will get all new things in our new life together.”

“Deal. I will see you there.” Bellamy hangs up so he doesn’t have to listen to her voice for another second. This has to work, but if Echo finds the Tile, he knows what he will have to do. 

“What did she say?” Murphy asks as soon as he gets back to the group. “Is she going to meet with you?”

Bellamy pinches the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, I have to go to the Dropship with nothing but the clothes on my back. She said we will get whatever else we need in ‘our new life together’.” Saying that makes him want to throw up, and by the looks of it, everyone else wants to, too.

“Here is the Tile,” Harper says while offering the small white square from her keyring. “Put it in a place you don’t think she will check.”

He wracks his brain and tries to come up with something. He could put it in his shoe, but he doesn’t want to risk breaking it. Pockets are too easy, too searchable. Maybe he could put it under his phone case? No, that won’t work because she will definitely look at his phone, so he would be handing the plan right to her. 

“I got it.” Bellamy grabs the sweatshirt Clarke took when she was going to her car. The hospital cleaned it after the cops got whatever DNA they needed from it, so there isn’t any blood on it. Last week, the shoulder of this sweatshirt was torn, but only the first layer. “I can put it in this tear here on the shoulder.”

Bellamy slides the piece of clothing over his head and carefully sticks the Tile inside the rip. It fits perfectly and falls down to about mid-chest where more stitching stops it. It’s not even noticeable. 

“Perfect,” Octavia comments. “You better get going if you are going to be there in time.”

“Yeah, I guess I should.”

“Be careful, big brother.”

“Remember,” Monty says. “This device will cover you all over Sanctum, but if you go outside of town, we will be blind to your location.” 

“As soon as I make it to the club, call the police officers on the case and tell them where I’m at. We probably won’t stay there long, though, so you will have to stay on the line with them and let them know where we are going. We have to catch her before she takes me wherever we are going.”

“Aye aye, captain.”

“And you are all staying here for Clarke, right?” If she wakes up when he’s not here, at least all their friends will be. 

Murphy walks up to him and gently handles a hand on his shoulder. “Monty and I will be with the cops to make sure they can get to you. Everyone else will be here.”

“Good. Well, let’s get this over with.” Bellamy weakly smiles at his wonderful friends, then looks over at Clarke, still lying unconscious in her bed. He remembers the promise he made to her: This will all be over by the time she wakes up. Then he leaves the hospital and drives to his potential doom.

Echo is leaning against her car when he arrives outside the club. He parks but doesn’t get out right away. He takes a second to breathe and convince himself he can do this. To end this all, he has to make her believe he is with her. Bellamy finally gets out and is ambushed by Echo.

“Give me your phone,” she commands. It’s nothing he didn’t expect. Bellamy left his GPS on and his location shared with all his friends on purpose. This way she will think this was the plan all along, not the backup GPS hidden in his jacket. “Thought you could trick me?”

“No, it’s not like that,” he replies but shows a look of defeat to make her believe even further that she just foiled their plan. “My friends didn’t want me to leave, so I said I’d leave my location on for them, but I knew you well enough to know you’d check me. I didn’t tell them that, so they have no idea they won’t see where I am now.”

Echo narrows her eyes but just turns off all GPS on his phone before giving it back. “I trust you won’t try anything behind my back?”

“I’m here aren’t I? If I were going to try anything, I would have to work a lot harder than secretly using my phone.”

“Look, I know this will be hard considering what you’ve been through,” Echo says, a hint of empathy in her voice. 

“You mean what you’ve put me through. If you hadn’t been so crazy, I probably would have stayed with you.” Bellamy curses himself when he sees her anger. He needs to keep her here for as long as he can. He takes both her hands and says, “I’m sorry. You just have to know how much stress I’ve had in my life lately.” Yeah, a stress named Echo.

“Everything will be much better when we are away from Sanctum. Far away.” Echo suddenly starts kissing him, and all he wants to do is pull away. An alarm goes off in his head telling him he is cheating on Clarke, and he starts feeling dirty, like the only way to get clean would be to physically scrape Echo off him. But he can’t because this has to work.

Bellamy kisses her back, though not as passionately, while her hands travel around his waist. She presses her body to his, not bothering with the fact that they are in public and she is basically seducing him right then and there. Her tongue finds it’s way inside his mouth and it takes all of his control not to pull away. 

He feels her hands travelling up his chest now and panic sets in. He tries to distract her with hand movements of his own, but it doesn’t stop her. Before he knows it, her fingers stop over the Tile, and she pulls away from his face. 

“What’s this?” He can’t tell if she is angry or confused that he almost tricked her. Probably a mix of both. She figures out how to get it out of the tear and holds it between her fingers for a moment before throwing it on the ground and stomping on it. “I should have known you’d be smarter than using just your phone.”

“I guess your love for me clouded your judgement,” he spits at her. 

“I guess it did. That’s why I’m giving you one last option. Want to hear it?”

No, Bellamy doesn’t want to hear it. What he wants is Murphy and Monty to show up with the cavalry. How much longer can it take? “Just tell me.”

“You go away with me, we live our life together, you never contact you friends again, and we live happily ever after.”

“That sounds exactly like what you already had planned. Why would I agree to that?” 

“Oh, I may have forgot to mention. When I said I had no blood on my hands, I wasn’t lying. One phone call from me, and another person you love will be hurt. He has been watching her for a while, now, just in case this Clarke situation didn’t work.”

“Octavia…” he breathes. 

“If you don’t come with me, no tracking devices attached, she will get hurt. And this time he may actually finish the job.”

He tries calling her bluff. “She won’t be leaving the hospital until Clarke wakes up and is able to go home. What are you going to do? Send your guy straight into the waiting room?”

“I didn’t say it would be right away. It would be when you least expect it; when you all start to feel safe again.”

“How did you become so cruel?” Bellamy’s anger starts showing. Where are the cops? “Why would you do all this?”

“That’s a story for another time. Maybe when we are settled down in Polis, I will tell you all about it. So what are you going to do?”

He can keep trying to stall, but her warning about Octavia sticks in his mind. Even if she hadn’t threatened his sister, he made up his mind before he left if their plan failed. “I will go with you. Nobody else is going to get hurt.”

Echo kisses him, but he doesn’t respond to it. “I knew you’d come around. It sounds harsh right now, but I’m only trying to get you to see the great life we can live together. Once you disconnect with all these people, it will be easier.”

“Whatever,” Bellamy concedes, but an idea strikes him. “But if we are going to leave right now, I’m going inside to use the bathroom.”

“That’s a good idea, I should as well. Give me your phone, though.” He knew she’d say that. They both walk inside the club and separate to their respective restrooms. He has to make this quick to avoid her suspicion.

Five minutes later, he finds Echo waiting in the hallway for him. Luckily, she doesn’t seem to think anything is up and gives his phone back to him. “Ready to go, babe?”

“As ready as I will ever be,” he says. They go out to her car and gets in. He notices all the stuff in the back seat. “I thought we were getting new things?”

“We are, but these were essential.”

“What if I had essential things I wanted to take?”

“We don’t have time now, but that’s your fault. I can only assume the police are coming this way since you had that tracker on you.”

Why does she have to be so damn smart? Bellamy doesn’t say anything as they make their way to the edge of Sanctum. The Dropship is in the center of downtown, so it takes nearly thirty minutes to get out. 

“What the hell?” Echo curses under her breath. Bellamy fights to not smile.

“What’s going on?” 

“It looks like roadblocks up ahead. All of these cars are stopped!”

“Just back up and turn around,” he suggests.

“I can’t, there are people coming up behind me.”

Bellamy looks out the windshield and windows. His heart starts beating faster as a beam of light starts approaching them. When it reaches their car, it stops and shines on Echo’s face. “It’s her!” the officer with the flashlight calls out.

Her car door is getting whipped open and Echo gets dragged to her feet. Bellamy lets out a long breath and exits the car also. He looks around, but it only takes seconds for him to find Murphy and Monty walking up to him. 

“It took long enough!” Bellamy sarcastically shouts. “We were outside the Dropship for twenty minutes!

Murphy says, “I think we’ve established the response time of these guys isn’t the best, no matter how much we begged them to get going.”

Bellamy turns to Monty, “I will buy Harper a new Tile. I hope it wasn’t too hard to upgrade the GPS.”

“It wasn’t, and don’t worry about it. The pack she bought was a pack of three, so she can use one of those.”

“Alright, but I will still apologize for it back at the hospital.”

“She will appreciate that.” Monty and Murphy go back to their car, but Bellamy walks over to the officer cuffing Echo. 

Her eyes are blazing with anger, and he can practically feel the steam coming from her ears. This is finally over. “You aren’t going to hurt anyone ever again.”

“How’d you do it? I got everything off you before we left, so how did they find us?” Bellamy revels in her confusion. 

“I suppose that’s a story for another time. Just one you won’t be hearing.” He watches as the cops stuff her in the back of their car and drive away. Bellamy joins his friends in their car and they head back to the hospital.

“Hey, I just got a text from Harper!” Monty suddenly shouts. “Clarke is awake, and everything seems to be fine!”

After that announcement, Murphy picks up speed and Bellamy’s chest fills with hope. He isn’t going to like explaining everything that happened, but he knows she will understand. There will be no secrets about what went down. 

In normal circumstances, it takes twenty minutes to get to the hospital. In this circumstance, it takes ten. The three of them get to the waiting room to find everyone except Octavia, Raven, and Harper in the waiting room.

“How is she?” Bellamy asks Lincoln, who is sitting in the chair closest to where they came in. “Will she be okay?”

“She’s fine. A little groggy and tired, but she has been asking for you. But we were told to keep it quiet when we are in there.” A pang of sadness hits him knowing Clarke has wanted him but he was not able to be there. It’s all for the best, he knows, and she will get that as well. 

When Bellamy opens the door to Clarke’s room, he sees her three best friends around her bed, making jokes. They try not to make Clarke laugh too much, but she seems to be getting better. The door must have creaked a little because all four girls look at him at the same time. Octavia runs and gives him a big hug.

“Monty said the signal went out and they didn’t know where you were! Then he got a call and—what happened, Bell?”

“O, I’m fine and everything worked out.” He is talking to his sister, but his eyes never leave the blonde lying in the bed.

“We will give you guys some space,” Harper says, taking Raven and Octavia by the arms, ushering them out. Right before she exits herself, she closes the blinds on the windows. 

Bellamy walks over to his usual position beside Clarke, her eyes never leaving his. He takes her hand on one of his and runs his other thumb across her cheek. “Clarke…I’m so…”

And he breaks. That was the last thing he wanted to do. He wanted to be strong for her, but it just came out. His sobs are muffled by her body as he rests his forehead on her stomach. He feels his shoulders shake and moves his hand from Clarke’s cheek, so he doesn’t accidentally touch anything sensitive. 

Clarke pulls her hand from his and runs her fingers soothingly through his hair. “Shhh… I’m alive. I’m okay.” Her voice is soft and gentle, but it doesn’t calm him down. He looks back up at her, tears streaming down his face. 

“No, Clarke, you aren’t fine. I almost got you killed!” He keeps his voice as quiet as he can. 

“Oh, so you are the one that hit me on the head?”

“Well, no but—”

“No, but, nothing. You didn’t do this.”

“If I hadn’t brought Echo into our lives, this would have never happened. I didn’t do this to you, but I sure as hell am the reason it happened.”

“Bellamy, stop, please. I don’t have the energy right now to convince you this wasn’t your fault. I also don’t have the energy for another conversation we are going to be having, but much later. I just needed to see that you were alright.” 

“Why wouldn’t I be okay? You’re the one lying in a hospital bed.”

“Like I said, I don’t want to talk about it right now.” Her voice may be low, but he can still detect the note of disapproval in her tone. Then in a gentler voice, “I love you, Bellamy. I’m just so tired.”

“Alright, I will let you get you sleep,” he says and stands to kiss her.

“Don’t leave. Stay with me until I’m asleep again.”

“Whatever you need, Clarke. I’m here for you.” Bellamy kisses her again and sits back down, retaking her hand in his. They talk about light things, making fun of the dumb hospital channels, how ugly the decorations are, the terrible quality of the food. Little things. In no time, Clarke is asleep. He doesn’t want to leave her side again, but he knows he owes his friends an explanation of what happened. 

Bellamy walks out of Clarke’s ICU unit and sits in his circle of friends. “Clarke is resting, but I bet you guys would like to know what happened. Oh, and Harper, I’m sorry about your Tile.”

“No big deal, I have more at home,” she says. A chorus of voices wants him to tell them how it went down, so he starts his story. Everyone sits back and silently listens.

“It started out fine, it was going exactly how we planned. She took my phone, and I told her you guys were the ones that wanted my phone location even though I told you she would turn it off. I figured since she has tried blaming you guys for everything in my life already, she would go with it. It started going wrong when she started…kissing me and running her hands all over me. I wasn’t expecting that so fast.”

“When she found out the real plan, I was about to go with her for real. It was a decision I had made before I left here to make sure nobody else I loved got hurt, even if it meant never seeing any of you again.” Bellamy takes in the sad eyes in the group, but thankfully nobody says anything. “But then I got another idea, and I had to think fast. I told her if we were going to leave right now that I had to use the bathroom. She agreed that she should too, but she took my phone again. Smart move, but I got the message out that I needed. When I was in the bathroom, I found someone to relay the message to Monty. No, he wasn’t completely random; I’ve seen him around the club before and we’ve talked, so it wasn’t totally weird.”

“I stopped him and dialed in Monty’s number on his phone, but didn’t press send. I couldn’t stay long, or Echo probably would have barged in and dragged me out. I told him to tell Monty that our plan was broken and that I was being taken to Polis. They had no more than thirty minutes to figure out how to find us and get us stopped before we left Sanctum for good.”

“Roadblocks were really smart. Stopping everyone that left the city made sure that there was no way we could get out without being seen. How did they know which way we’d be leaving?”

“They didn’t,” Monty says. “There are only three major roads out of Sanctum, so they put patrol cars at each exit.”

“We took a chance on you guys taking the most direct route, though, since we knew she would want to be out before the police found you,” Murphy explains. 

“Well, I think it’s finally safe to say that she is gone for good now,” says Bellamy. “Thank you everyone. I couldn’t have gotten through any of this without you all.”

Octavia stands up and pulls her brother to his feet. A second later she is hugging him and says, “I’m glad it’s all over. You and Clarke and everything will be alright after this.” Raven and Harper join the hug. Then Emori, pulling Murphy in. Soon, everyone is in the group hug. The only way to make it perfect would be if Clarke was there, but they all know she needs her rest.

“Am I the only one who is glad we don’t have to work tomorrow?” Murphy mumbles into the group hug.

“Speak for yourself,” Lincoln says, sarcastically bitter. 

“I mean, we’ve all stayed up till midnight before, but it’s never been this exhausting!” Then, despite what’s happened over the course of this night, Bellamy laughs. Next thing he knows, they are all laughing out there in the waiting room like someone cracked a joke instead of stating a true fact.

When they all calm down again, Bellamy looks over to Clarke’s window. She is sleeping safe and sound. Once she is out of the hospital, Bellamy will be with her and taking care of her. They will finally be continuing their lives together the way they should have been doing so long ago. And Bellamy can’t wait for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Echo is smart, but Bellamy is smarter! But what about Echo's threat? Could she really have another guy that could hurt his sister or anyone else he cares about? Chapter 10, the last, will clear everything up.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and Bellamy discuss what has been bothering her and the whole group gets the closure they deserve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is shorter than usual. I guess it's an epilogue type of chapter where everything gets wrapped up.

It’s Saturday, just over a week after the incident, and Clarke has been home for five days now. 

After the last scare, when her cranial pressure had spiked, she had been kept for observation for 72 hours. With no other signs of declining health, she was then discharged. Bellamy had taken her to her apartment and made her as comfortable as she wanted. 

Clarke hadn’t wasted any time, though. “This place is a mess,” she said when they walked through the door. Nothing had been touched since the party, which meant everything was gross. 

“We can get it, Clarke. You should rest,” said Bellamy, but he was met with her eyes shooting daggers back at him. 

“I have been resting for days, and I’m sick of it. I can clean a little.”

Him, his sister, and Raven had looked between each other and back at Clarke, all recognizing the angry tone Clarke had, but none knowing where it came from. They shrugged their shoulders and helped Clarke clean the apartment. Ever since then, Clarke hasn’t said much when Bellamy was around, and he is getting concerned. 

“Are you alright?” he asks her as they lounge on the couch after just eating lunch. She is resting her head in his lap, his fingers running through her hair. She has his other hand resting on her stomach, hers covering it. She can’t be too angry with him. Right?

“Mm-hm.” She doesn’t turn back to look at him, just squeezes his hand and keeps watching their movie. 

“It’s just, you haven’t really talked much since you got home. Don’t get me wrong, there is no rush to get back to normal; you deserve all the time you need to heal.”

“I’m fine, Bellamy.”

“Ok.” He sits there and resumes what he was doing, her soft hair falling between his fingers with each stroke. He tries to focus on the movie, but one thing keeps distracting him. “You seem to be fine when Octavia or Raven or anyone else is around, but whenever it’s just me, I don’t know, you seem off.”

“Can we please just watch the movie?” she asks, a little agitated. 

“I’m sorry,” he says quietly. He feels her sigh and remove her head from his lap. She sits on the opposite side of the couch from him. Resting her elbow on the back of it, she leans her head on her hand. She doesn’t look as annoyed as she has sounded lately, but Bellamy can tell there is still more on her mind. 

“Why are you sorry?”

“For everything, Clarke. I’m the one that started all this. If it wasn’t for me dating Echo, you wouldn’t have gotten so hurt.”

“Did you know she was such a psychotic bitch when you met her?” Clarke raises her brows at him. 

“No, but when I knew what she was capable of, I still let you go outside alone. I should have known she would have done something. I should have protected you.”

“Bellamy, this was not your fault. I will tell you over and over again if you need to hear it, but I hope I don’t have to. I am alive and okay and here. I don’t want you to keep blaming yourself for something you couldn’t control. You don’t deserve that weight on your shoulders.”

Bellamy nods and leans over to kiss her slightly on her lips. She returns the gesture, but not as much as usual. “Are you sure you don’t need anything?” he asks, and just like that, her face reflects her actions lately: annoyed as hell.

“I’m fine, Bell! I just want to get back to normal.”

A memory snaps into his head at her small outburst. He is sitting on his couch with Echo the day they bumped into Clarke at Day Trip Diner. They are watching Pearl Harbor and Echo keeps asking what he wants; keeps offering to get him things. He remembers getting bothered by how much she was asking him questions and how that day was the start of everything bad afterwards. Realization dawns on Bellamy. 

He is starting to act just like Echo.

“Bellamy? Are you alright?” Clarke scoots closer to him on the couch and tries taking his hand. He slides it away and heads into the bathroom. Ignoring Clarke’s protests, he looks at himself in the mirror. His face is drained of blood and his forehead shows a mild sweat shine. “Bellamy, open the door and talk to me.”

“I’m okay. I will be out in a minute,” he tells her, voice shaking slightly.

“If you’re okay, open the door.” Bellamy sighs and unlocks the door without looking. 

Clarke hurries in and looks him over, worry etched in her face. She wipes away the beads of sweat and places her hands on his cheeks. “What is wrong?”

“I’m sorry, I just… I don’t know.” He looks deep into her ocean blue eyes. “I remembered how Echo acted one time when we were hanging out and realized I was acting the same way just now. I never want to be what she was.”

Clarke doesn’t say anything, but she takes Bellamy’s hand and guides him into the kitchen. She takes out a water bottle from the fridge, opens it, and hands it to him. Then she sits on the counter and watches him take a drink. They both relax a little.

“You have to know you will never be like Echo, right?” He drinks more of his water and leans his hip next to where she sits, facing her.

“Before all this, yeah I thought I knew that. But now I can’t help but feel that I have been smothering you since you got home. I mean, you haven’t been talking to me like you have all our other friends. You let me stay with you, but I feel like all it does is bother you.”

“Bellamy, no. That’s not what’s happening. I’m sorry for snapping at you like that, I shouldn’t have reacted that way. I love that you are here supporting and taking care of me.” 

“Then what is it? What did I do to upset you? You haven’t been the same since I saw you after we stopped Echo.”

Clarke repositions Bellamy so he is right in front of her, standing between her knees. She makes sure he is listening when she says, “When I woke up, you weren’t there.”

Bellamy should have known. He starts feeling bad for it all over again, and he drops his head so he isn’t looking at her anymore. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m not mad that you weren’t there right when I woke up, Bellamy. I am upset because of the reason you were gone. She could have hurt you! Or take you! Hell, she nearly did!”

“I know, but I couldn’t let her go free. I couldn’t risk letting her do this to someone else.”

“And I love you so much for that,” she says as she raises his chin to look into his eyes. “But when I heard Raven and Octavia talking about what was happening, I got so worried. The only thing that didn’t push me off the hospital bed to chase after you was the fact that when I woke up and heard everything, you were already safely on your way back to me.”

Bellamy’s eyes soften at her confession. “I never meant to worry you. I just had to clean up my mess.”

“I was so scared that I could have lost you.” She kisses him, barely pressing their lips together.

“You’ll never lose me,” Bellamy assures her before deepening their kisses. Clarke wraps her legs around his waist, pulling him closer to her. 

Bellamy’s hands travel from her thighs to her hips and under her shirt. He feels her smile against his lips, so he continues. He slowly raises her shirt and drops it to the floor when it’s off. Settling his mouth into the crook of her neck, he feels her pulse quicken under his lips. Next thing he knows, his own shirt has joined hers on the floor and Clarke’s hands are buried deep in his curls. 

She breaks away, but not too far, and breathes, “You can’t ever do that again. Promise me you will never risk your own safety.”

“I can’t do that, Clarke. I love you so much, and I always do whatever I have to do to protect the one I love. That is a promise I can make.”

“And I know that if the tables are ever turned, I wouldn’t be able to sit back and watch it happen either. I love you, too.” Clarke leans back in and parts his lips with hers. Bellamy picks her up and carries her to her bedroom. 

“Are you sure?” he asks, wanting to make sure she won’t get hurt.

“More sure than I ever have been.” With that, he closes the door and they show each other how much they have missed each other. 

\-----------------------

Two hours and a quick nap later, Bellamy and Clarke are back on the couch, her tucked into his body. Nothing is between them anymore and all conflict is resolved. They are watching a stupid-funny TV show that neither of them has ever seen before when a preview for the six o’clock news comes on. 

“And coming up,” the reporter states, “is the story of a local woman’s arrest after a brutal attack on another woman.”

Clarke smirks into Bellamy’s chest. “Everyone should be here for this. Octavia and Raven should be home any time now, but I’ll call Harper. Shaw and Lincoln work tonight.”

“I’ll call Murphy, Jasper, and Miller. Shaw and Lincoln always have to work. That sucks.” Bellamy says. 

Within the hour, the entire group is smushed into Clarke, Octavia, and Raven’s small apartment. Murphy digs into the beer, as usual, and hands everyone the first round. Monty and Harper sit on the floor with Murphy and Emori. Everyone else is either on the crowded couch or recliners. Fifteen minutes until the news.

“Who else is actually watching the news for the first time?” Murphy jokes. Nearly everyone raises their glasses and takes a drink. It’s not surprising to Bellamy, really. Not when everyone has a phone with access to so much more. 

While everyone else is talking to each other and across the room, Bellamy leans over to Clarke and speaks quietly into her ear, “Are you sure you want to watch this?”

“It’ll be okay, I have you. And besides, you’re the one that had to go through most of this. Are _you_ sure you want to watch this?”

“Yeah, like you said; I have you.” Bellamy kisses her temple, and not long after, the same news reporter from before appears on screen. “Here we go.”

The reporter beings the story. “Last week, an unnamed woman was attacked outside of an apartment building here in Sanctum. The victim was rushed to the hospital and after days of recovery, was released with no remaining injuries. Here is the security footage from outside the building obtained from the police.”

“Security footage? How did we not know about that?” Octavia asks, obviously confused.

“Yeah, I had no idea there was a camera out there,” Raven agrees. Clarke seems too focused on the screen to comment on the topic.

Everyone is silent as the footage plays. It shows Clarke walking up to her car and unlock it. She turns to open her back door, but she must have heard the person walking up to her. As soon as she is facing the attacker, her head is hit with a big brick and she is down in seconds. The picture is frozen on the attacker as they walk away from Clarke. 

The breath Bellamy didn’t know he was holding comes out in a long release. He remembers Echo’s threat that she had someone else attack Clarke and would come for Octavia next. This proves he was right to call her bluff.

“With the help of friends of the victim, this woman was identified as Echo Azgeda. Unknown to them though, the attacker’s real name is Ash Azgeda. Along with the violence from the footage, she has also been arrested for stalking and harassing a male victim she had taken a liking to.”

“A liking to? That’s quite an understatement,” Murphy scoffs. Bellamy can’t help but agree.

“This woman,” the reporter continues, “started going by the name ‘Echo’ when Polis police had gone after her for stalking and harassing a previous male target. When Ash was no longer able to be found, the case had been dropped. She will now be heading to prison for her accumulated crimes.”

Everyone is shocked. 

Bellamy’s head fills with questions. Ash? Her real name wasn’t even Echo? And she has done this before? Bellamy shouldn’t be surprised by that last one given how prepared she had always been. She clearly had some practice. He feels bad for whoever this already happened to, but he is glad she won’t be able to do it anymore. 

“Damn, that woman is a psychopath!” Jasper shouts. They all nod in agreement.

“I wonder how that other guy came out of this when it happened to him,” Miller wonders out loud to the group. 

Monty says, “I’m assuming with a drinking problem.”

They all laugh and turn on some music. Since they didn’t get together last night - nobody wanted to rush Clarke into anything even though Clarke would have been fine with it - they decide to treat tonight like a Friday. There are games, alcohol, music, the usual. Best yet, there is no overbearing fear of getting watched or attacked. Echo is gone and everyone can feel it. 

It’s 1:00 AM when the last ones, Murphy and Emori, as per usual, leave. Raven and Octavia already went to bed. Bellamy holds the door open for his friends. “You should really lay off the drinking and let your girlfriend have some fun for once,” Bellamy teases Murphy. “You should drive her home one of these nights.”

“Listen to his wise words, John,” Emori agrees, though not angry or upset in any way, just teasing. “I like to drink too, you know.”

“Fine, I will let you drink next week,” Murphy slurs.

Emori slings her drunk boyfriend’s arm around her shoulder. “That would mean more if you were going to remember this when you woke up.”

Then Clarke comes up and wraps her arm around Bellamy’s waist and leans her head into his shoulder. Bellamy pulls her in to his side. Clarke says, “It would probably mean even more if we hadn’t agreed to meet at your apartment next week.”

Emori rolls her eyes. “She’s right, asshole.”

“Wow, rude,” Murphy mumbles, nearly passing out as he stands. 

“Like I said, babe, you won’t remember this in the morning.” Emori then drags Murphy out. Bellamy shuts the door, and he pulls Clarke against him as he leans back against it. His hands rest on her hips.

He smiles down at her, “Well I guess I should go, too.” 

“Oorr,” she drawls, “you can come to bed with me.” 

“I suppose that’s a good option.” Bellamy cups her cheeks and softly kisses her grinning lips. 

“I agree,” she says. Clarke rests her hands on his chest, and they stay there locking lips for a few moments. When the kisses become more intense, Clarke backs them into her room, and they collapse onto her bed. Except, once they’re there, they revel in the softness of the blankets that surround them. She crawls under them and Bellamy follows suit. They face each other, neither of them able to keep their eyes open for very long.

“If I wasn’t so tired, I’d be ripping your clothes off,” Clarke whispers.

“And if I wasn’t so tired, I’d be… well I’m too tired to think of something specific, but we both know you’d love it.”

“Rain check?”

“Rain check.” Bellamy kisses her forehead, and she turns so her back is pressed against his front. Bellamy thinks of all the hell he has gone through these past weeks. He’s fallen for a psychopath, had his life turned upside down by this psychopath, nearly lost Clarke, and barely escaped being kidnapped to live a terrible life. 

But, out of everything that’s happened, one thing has changed that he will never regret: the woman lying in his arms. It may not have happened the way he wanted, nowhere near the way in fact, but despite everything, she is here. She is alive and safe. They are going to be together for the rest of their lives, and nobody will ever convince him otherwise. 

Bellamy hears her breathing even out, and not minutes after, he feels himself fall prey to the same unconsciousness.

Life is good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for sticking with the story! All the comments and thoughts about what was happening always inspired me to keep writing. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! If there are any last constructive criticisms, this is the time to do it. I appreciate anything that can make me a better writer. Again, thank you so so so much!

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully you liked it! Any comments with feedback or suggestions are always appreciated!


End file.
